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MJDS unveils new Tuition Grant Program: Offers full tuition for most new students

April 25th, 2012

About three weeks before April 23, leaders of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School received notice of an opportunity — and a challenge.

As head of school Brian King and school president Dan Sinykin told it, a community person who wishes to remain anonymous is deeply impressed by the quality of the school, which was started in 1981, has more than 600 graduates, and currently has 191 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Therefore, they said, this person offered MJDS officials a sizeable grant of money to enable the school to increase its enrollment — if the school officials could put together quickly a program to make use of this money for that purpose for the next school year.

King and Sinykin unveiled this new MJDS Tuition Grant Program to some 150 people — MJDS faculty members, board members, and parents of current and former students — at the school on April 23.

“We have been gifted with a special opportunity to expand the student enrollment in a way we never imagined,” Sinykin said to the audience.

Moreover, a great community concern is “the affordability of being Jewish,” Sinykin said. With this grant, the donor is “trying to take one barrier out of the equation. When this generous program is used in combination with existing, need-based programs, it should eliminate any financial impediment to MJDS enrollment.”

Sinykin and King also called upon the audience to spread the word about this program in the community. For the program “to work and reach its full promise,” parents, alumni, and others “must be active participants,” Sinykin said.

This program, King and Sinykin said, will be effective for the 2012-13 school year. It has two tracks: one for new students, one for current students.

• Students entering the junior and senior kindergarten grades will receive up to $2,000 a year all the way through eighth grade.

• Students entering first through fifth grades can receive a full tuition grant for their first year, and up to $4,000 a year for the four years thereafter.

• Students entering sixth and seventh grade can receive a full tuition grant for their first year, and up to $4,000 a year thereafter through eighth grade.

The offering for current students has two tracks. Students in the junior and senior kindergarten could receive a tuition grant of up to $2,000 a year for up to eight years. Students in grades 1 through 7 could receive a grant of up to $2,000 a year for up to three years.

The difference in time duration for these grants reflects the importance of the kindergarten to the long-term future of the school. “The way you really build a school and its stability is to build the kindergarten,” said King. “That pays dividends many years down the road.”

King and Sinykin emphasized that all this exists on top of and independently from the school’s current financial aid program. Moreover, the grants are intended to help with tuition only, not with the school’s fees for programming, technology, and enrollment.

Moreover, the grants will not reduce the school’s tuition charges, which at present are $7,335 for junior kindergarten, $8,515 for senior kindergarten, and $11,460 per year for grades 1 through 8. Neither does this program change the processes or standards for admission or financial aid.

In a conversation with The Chronicle after the meeting, King and Sinykin said the program has no specific goal for the number of students sought for this program, partly because school officials do not want to change the admissions process.

They also said the actual amount of money the donor will give will depend on the number of participants in the program. Sinykin was willing to estimate that the amount could be “in excess of $1.5 million.”

And they further stated that MJDS “will always be a place for small class sizes. We have room [for more students] in every class.”

To provide information about the school and the Tuition Grant Program, MJDS has scheduled open tours of the school on four Tuesdays in May; May 1 and 15 at 7:45 a.m., and May 8 and 22 at 7 p.m.

The school has also set up a website, www.gomjds.org. For more information, visit that site or contact Noach Jubelirer, director of admissions and outreach, 414-967-8314 or njubelirer@mjds.org.

MJDS, one of three Milwaukee-area Jewish day schools, is located in the north building on the Karl Jewish Community Campus, and is a partner agency of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.