This year’s budget deficit was supposed to run to $1.5 million (with $500,000 covered by Roland Arnall and the other million covered by fundraising) but the figure is closer to $3 million (in part because of the small numbers in the junior and senior classes at the high school and Jerry’s free spending).
It’s enough to make Jerry relapse into his cursing habit. Wonder what step on the moral development ladder Larry Kohlberg would place that?
Shalehevet seeks a new head of school to succeed founder Jerry Friedman, 78 yo. They’re interviewed three candidates. The first was the headmaster of a 200-kid community school in Georgia. After visiting Shalhevet, he withdrew his name.
Jerry says he’s leaving but it doesn’t look like he’s eager for a replacement. He wants the school to keep running as he runs it, which would be a disaster.
It’s extraordinarily difficult for Friedman to let go. Most of his self-image is wrapped up in the school. He’s got one foot in the grave. Shalhevet is his legacy.
I’m not dead yet. I think I’ll go for a walk.
You’re not fooling anybody.
Jerry’s been resisting board control for years. Now the board has control over budget and hiring. Jerry’s not doing what the board’s instructing him to do.
Bad Jerry.
His wife brought the fortune. He took it and invested it in real estate. He built huge warehouses for businesses such as Sam’s Club and made tens of millions of dollars. About 16 years ago, he went off to Harvard and got, not a PhD as he allows people to think, but an EDD (a professional education degree that takes two years).
He says he did a survey of schools in Boston and found that Orthodox schools were not as morally based as Conservative and Reform schools. So he introduced this innovative curriculum at Shalhevet. Presumably it pervades the classrooms even if it doesn’t pervade Jerry who’s still very much a hard-swearing bullying real estate guy. As far as Shalhevet employees are concerned, Jerry’s still a typical real estate man.
The mood at Shalhevet is better now that Sam Gomberg is no longer the principal. Phu Tranchi is Shalhevet’s principal in everything but title.
Bornyo posts: "There are two misspellings on the front page of the website in the fundraising campaign plea. That doesn’t reflect well on a school."
