Staff Management

Succession Planning Helps Avoid Scramble To Find New ECE Leader

The past year, more than ever before, directors are leaving the field completely. Congregations are left scrambling to find a qualified replacement and unfortunately, while COVID and the resulting impact on ECE programs could not have been anticipated, having a director take a new position or retire happens all the time. Succession planning should be a part of every congregation’s long-term planning process.

This includes:

• Cultivating a pipeline of talent by providing opportunities for advancement through dedicated and intentional mentoring and leadership coaching.
• Investing in the early childhood center by valuing the teachers with appropriate living wages and benefits to reward and retain staff.
• Including succession planning as an integral part of the job description of the Executive Director and Early Childhood Director to ensure a seamless leadership transition.

Investing in the future of early childhood education within your congregation can be a long and laborious process but a necessary one in ensuring the success and longevity of the program and ultimately, the congregation.

Making Sure My Teachers Were Compensated Fairly

Last spring, our congregation took part in the Leading Edge Employee Experience survey. The only area we did not excel in was Salary & Benefits, specifically on the question “I understand how salaries and raises are determined at my organization.”

So when I took over as preschool director, one of my priorities was to make sure the preschool staff did not feel taken advantage of if they discovered how much their peers were making compared to themselves.

The first thing I did in creating a new pay structure was to meet with each teacher and chronicle their experience and educational background. 

Although I had no idea how much to weigh the various elements, I did my best to match current salaries with the average wages for the same positions in New Jersey and what the ECE-RJ surveys showed.   

No matter how hard I tried, I could not justify the current pay rates for many teachers. This required rectifying these discrepancies in the new budget for our next fiscal year. For some teachers, this meant an increase of $10,000 or more.  

Here are the various elements I considered when creating our new pay structure.

• Years as an Assistant Teacher
• Years as a Lead Teacher
• Certificates/Training (this area x4 for teacher credential)
• Child Development Associate Credential (CDA)
• Associate’s Degree
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Master’s Degree
• Merit
• Life Experience (work not directly as a teacher)

Is it right? Is it unbalanced? Does it consider every possible factor? Probably not. But it is a step in the right direction.   

Michelle W. Malkin
Executive Director and Early Childhood Director
Temple Ner Tamid, NJ

February 2022

The Loneliness of New Staff Members

During my first year as a teacher, I was standing on a counter putting up my very first bulletin board. I was so impressed with myself as I looked at the interactive recyclable trash board I created. Since there was no one around to share my pride, I smirked and kept prepping.  A few minutes later the assistant principal peeked into my room. She smiled and complimented my work. Then she turned to me and made a comment I’ll never forget, “Are you doing ok?”

I smiled and nodded my head. I was alright. I was bubbling with excitement at the opportunity to run my first classroom.

She continued, “You may be surrounded by children all day, but teaching can be a lonely profession. You can go hours without adult communication, so just checking on you.”

She gave me a warm, genuine smile and said that I should ask her if I ever needed anything. Then she moved on.

I stood there bewildered. I kept replaying the conversation in my head. How could teaching possibly be lonely at times? There are chatty staff meetings, children and parents, and the constant buzz of gossip. It seemed like an odd comment to me.

As the years went on, I’d remember her words. I finally understood what she meant when I became a director, as I wandered the halls during teacher prep week. Although it had been a busy week of workshops and team building, I saw teachers prepping their rooms in solitude. I stopped at the classroom door of a new teacher. I suddenly realized just what the assistant principal had meant. New staff members are literally thrust into a classroom within seconds of arriving.  It can be lonely. Every “new arrival’ would benefit from an anchor. It was from this realization that the peer mentor program was born.

Our Professional Orientation Program (aka POP) matches alumni teachers (mentors) with new teachers (mentees). The pairing lasts the entire first year. It is run by teachers, for teachers; creating an anchor to the school and providing a confidant, guide and friend to help guide and nurture the new teacher. The mentor hones their leadership skills and events are planned for all to bond. The program is light, fun and incredibly successful in helping new staff feel at home in and connected to our school community.

By Jodi Cohen Perry, MS.Ed
Early Childhood Center Director
The Amy Gail Buchman Preschool

Supporting Each Other Judgement Free

School is beginning and this year, more than ever, educators in early childhood centers and religious schools need support. A year and a half of changing plans that we worked so hard on, learning entirely new ways of teaching, comforting others while feeling uncertain ourselves, and doing our best to create a sense of community while students are separated into pods or logging into class from their homes has left educators running on fumes.

As we all dig deep to ensure that the start of this school year is as special and exciting as we can make it, our Jewish tradition offers answers as to where we might look for support. Hinei ma tov u’ma naim, shevet achim gam yachad: how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to sit together (Psalm 133:1). We are in this together and we understand one another’s struggles and achievements, as educators, better than anyone else. While early childhood centers and religious schools welcome children to campus at different times and for different programs, the educational leaders of these departments can find time to sit with one another on a regular basis, without a formal agenda. Having this time set aside to speak with someone who inherently understands what we do and the intricacies of the organizations in which we work, can become the extra emotional sustenance that we need to propel us into this new school year.

This year we can make an extra effort to support our fellow educators by sitting together without judgment through:

• Joy: sharing our successes with students and watching their growth, watching our teachers develop professionally, celebrating lifecycle events, enjoy the moments when we get to feel a sense of “normalcy”, and laugh at the silly things that we see and hear when our students are with us.
• Hardship: the personal and professional challenges that Covid creates for educators, the shortage of teachers and money to pay them what they deserve, and the fear of our students, staff, families, or ourselves becoming ill.
• Change: the ways that we have had to learn to adapt to teaching our students in new ways, the ever-changing guidelines and mandates placed on schools, and the ways that many aspects of our jobs have dramatically changed since Covid began.
   

Rose Orlovich, MAEd, MAEd ECE
Director of Education
Lee and Frank Goldberg Family Religious School
Congregation Beth Israel, San Diego, CA

Hiring a new individual to lead and manage your Early Childhood Education program can be stressful and at times difficult. By following some best practices before and during your search, the process can go smoothly, and  increase your chances of selecting the right person. 

ECE-RJ has developed a toolkit to help you with the process which is made available at no cost to Reform Movement Congregations. To help you in your search, below are some tips:

• Transparency and ongoing communication are critical. It is important to keep stakeholders abreast of the search process including congressional leaders, staff, and parents.
• Produce a job description that contains the necessary educational and training requisites, licensing, responsibilities, and job review process. Salary and compensation information should be included in all job descriptions and postings.
• To cast as wide a net as possible, use both Jewish and secular online job search websites.
• Sifting through a pile of resumes can be overwhelming. Consider using a ranking system as a guide to help you develop the best candidate pool possible.
• A three-round selection process is recommended. Each round should use a different set of questions and formats as well as involve key stakeholders in the congregation and early childhood center.

ECE-RJ Executive Director, Tricia Ginis is available to guide you through the process and give you access to the ECE-RJ Placement Toolkit. She can be reached at tginis@urj.org.

Staff

July/August 2021

It happened again. I walk into a shared art space and it was a total disaster. Stuff everywhere. Papers all over the table. Topless markers and used paint brushes just laying around drying out. Wadded up mistakes scattered around the outside of the wastebasket.  My first response, anger. I’m so angry I want to run over to my colleague and say something.   

But should I?  Some of us spend more awake time with our co-workers than we do with our families, so treating one another well provides a much happier and calmer existence. This requires communicating our upsets to ensure things are better in the future but doing so in a collegial, respectful manner.   

Years ago, I learned a technique for conflict resolution which I boiled down to our crossing-the-street rules: STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN.

Stop – Unless anyone is in immediate danger, take ten minutes (sometimes more, sometimes less) to calm down. Approaching someone when you are emotional can be disastrous. Take time to plan the best approach and timing. Figure out when the person might be most receptive.

Look – Look within yourself. Remember that you are all at work, trying to do the best job possible. Getting through the day may be the only thing one can accomplish on some days. We don’t know everything people are going through outside of school. Gather up your empathy and give your colleague the benefit of the doubt. Start with the idea that they meant no harm.

Listen- Stephen Covey says, “Seek first to understand before seeking to be understood”.  Start with a well-being check. “Are you okay?” Wait for the answer. If the answer is “yes”, say something like, “I noticed that the art room wasn’t cleaned up and just wanted to make sure that you didn’t need help with anything.”

Listen to the answer.  If there is a valid reason for this, you have saved both of you from a negative encounter. If the reaction is unkind, express that it’s helpful for you to walk into a clean space or whatever fits the current situation.

Speak about what you need, not what the other person has done wrong. If there is a lack of respect toward you, speak to a supervisor. It is not your responsibility to reprimand a colleague.  Some resolutions need to involve others to ensure a successful outcome.

Inclusive work environments are most fulfilling when there is an appreciation and understanding that we all have strengths and weaknesses.  Not everyone has to be friends at school, but we do need to be respectful and caring of one another.  Next time you are in an aggravating situation, STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN!    

Jennie Rubin
Director of Early Childhood Education
Temple B’nai Or
Morristown, NJ

Creating a Culture of Teacher Support and Appreciation

There are many quick, easy and inexpensive (or free) ways a Congregation can show support and appreciation for its ECE and Religious Education professionals.  The only requirement is thought and intentionality.  Below are ideas that participants shared in a Meet Up webinar, facilitated by Susie Wexler (ECE-RJ) and Andrea Fleekop (ARJE).

Things Your Congregation Can Do at No Cost

• Written notes of appreciation from leadership, students, and parents: Use fun shaped sticky notes to write notes of appreciation to teachers.
• Online Google Thank You Note form: Encourage anyone to send a thank you note to teachers – families-to-teachers or colleague-to-colleague.  The comment goes first to the teacher’s or colleagues so that h/she can add additional comments.  The link to the form is shared at the beginning of the school year and periodically throughout the year. Very easy to do and instant! 
• Show interest in your teachers’ lives outside of school:  Celebrate/recognize milestones in their lives, if this is the culture of your school and your temple.  Support them when things are rough.  By doing so, you show them that you value not only their work, but also your relationship.
• Create opportunities for teachers to feel part of the greater Temple community:  Offer free tickets or attendance to school sponsored or congregational events. Create pop-up activities across the educational and congregational communities.  Invite clergy and lay leaders to attend teacher meetings.

Things Your Congregation Can Do at Minimal Cost

• Honor teachers at holiday time: Teachers appreciate the small efforts of leadership – jars of cookie or pancake mixes, tote bags, a Gratitude dinner, Teacher Shabbat, coffee- or tea-tasting.  Some programs have a Treat Cart -- teachers receive a menu to select favorite snacks, and the snacks get delivered like room service.  It’s the thought that counts.
• Provide monthly Pick-Me-Ups, just because:  Little tokens of appreciation go a long way.  Some ideas include Starbucks gift cards, Survival Kits (Emergen-C, hand sanitizer, etc.), gel pens and post-it notes, mini hand lotions, heart socks, fingerless gloves and more. Special treats in the directors’ and clergy’s offices are also a nice way to show appreciation.
• Field Trip to Thrift or Discount Store:  Give teachers $100 total to spend as they wish for their classrooms and curricula.  If possible, set a time that teachers can visit and shop together.
• Offer activities that are purely fun: One colleague suggested having teachers work together to acquire “fun skills,” like juggling, hula-hooping, and jumping rope.

Things That Require Advance Planning and Budgeting

• Offer special perks or benefits of employment:  Allow teachers to enroll their children in early childhood or religious school at a reduced or free tuition rate.  Offer temple membership as a free benefit of employment. Increase teachers’ income by giving them added responsibility, such as mentoring a new teacher.
• Overnight retreat for teachers.
• Treating teachers to a “Teacher Appreciation Dinner” at a nice restaurant.
• Invest in your teachers: Subsidize continuing professional development, Jewish and/or educational-based. 

Useful LInks:

• Teacher Appreciation Week: A culture of appreciation in the workplace
• Culture of positive appreciation
• Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas
• Value of gratitude

Andrea Fleekop RJE
Director of the School for Jewish Living
Temple Beth El of Pensacola
Pensacola, FL

Susie Wexler
BJBE Early Childhood Program at the Chava Center Director
B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim
Deerfield, IL

December 2019

Bringing Our Emotional Strength to Our Classrooms and Work

Burn-out is a major problem for professionals today. Many are surprised to learn that burnout is the result of emotional stress, not physical exhaustion. It is no surprise that some teachers are emotionally exhausted! Our rabbis teach that an ‘impatient person cannot be a teacher’. At times, even the most patient teacher will be stressed when searching for even more patience to deal with their students, colleagues or other challenges, resulting in burn out.

There is a more effective, less emotionally stressful way to lead, to teach, and to interact with others according to Rabbi Friedman. Teaching is about the teacher and a teacher with integrity, wholeness and a sense of self is best for the child. Parents and teachers are worn out by a child’s unregulated behavior from being too ‘available’, or too ‘understanding’. He writes, 

“I have found that parents (and teachers) are far better able to sustain a growth-producing attitude toward their children by adopting a new perspective - parents must be able to concentrate on the preservation of their own integrity rather than changing the child. When we focus on the other, the unrelenting lack of self-regulation in a troublesome child gives the child a never-ending, relentless strength that is hard for parents and teachers to resist as long as they are trying to be empathic.”

I was surprised to understand the difference between empathy and sympathy. “Sympathy, unlike empathy, does not involve a shared perspective or shared emotions, and while expressions of sympathy do convey caring, they do not convey shared distress.” Sympathy is a wonderful way to care for others, while too often empathy becomes an unhealthy and unhelpful tactic. For example, when a student is upset over receiving a vanilla cupcake instead of a chocolate cupcake, I will employ sympathy, however, if I truly feel empathy then I will be as distressed as the child because I am absorbing their anxiety.

Rabbi Freidman would urge us to:

• Stay calm, do not absorb another’s anxiety
• Take a stance and stick to it
• Realize that people cannot hear you when they are unmotivated to change

Rabbi Feivel Strauss
Temple Israel
Memphis TN

October 2019