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Strategic Plan 2014-15

Throughout the 2014-15 school year, Hannah Senesh Community Day School is undertaking a significant strategic planning effort. Having successfully moved from a start-up to an established institution, we now face the opportunity to dream our next stage of development. We intend to ask and answer questions such as: How might our mission and program evolve and truly distinguish Senesh from other educational opportunities? To what extent and how do we grow? How do we balance affordability and sustainability? Through an inclusive and candid process, we are envisioning our desired future and translating this vision into strategies and action plans to which the School will hold itself accountable to achieve.

  • The Board of Trustees, partnering with the School’s professional leadership, has engaged an experienced, independent consultant, Skip Kotkins of Carney Sandoe & Associates, to design and facilitate a strategic planning process that:
  • Is informed by the perspectives and experiences of parents, students, alumni, faculty, staff, board, and others in the broader Brownstone Brooklyn and NYC Jewish community;
  • Is informed by broader trends in Jewish and independent schools, Jewish Brownstone Brooklyn and other relevant external factors;
  • Identifies strengths we can build on;
  • Challenges orthodoxies and wrestles down weaknesses; and
  • Delivers a plan that is both aspirational and achievable.

Rather than a fixed time horizon plan, i.e. a 5-year plan, this strategic plan will pace strategic priorities and calls for regular reviews by the board and staff to adjust as new challenges and opportunities emerge.

The timeline for the planning process is:

  • Spring and Summer 2014: Establish Strategic Plan Steering Committee, hire consultant, and plan the process.
  • October-November 2014: Conduct internal and external scans, including conversations and focus groups with parents, staff and other stakeholders.
  • December 2014: Synthesize and analyze the data and interview results, share key findings, and establish strategic direction.
  • January 2015: Present a preliminary strategic plan to the Board of Trustees.
  • February-March 2015: Develop implementation plan.
  • April 2015: Board of Trustees considers and ratifies the strategic plan and implementation plan and share the plan with families, staff, and other stakeholders.
  • The Board of Trustees selected a diverse group to constitute the Strategic Planning Steering Committee:

JJ Berney: JJ Berney is CEO and Founder of TriOaks Capital Management L.P., an alternative asset manager in New York. JJ has spent 14 years in the financial services industry focusing on companies in the media, entertainment, Internet, telecommunication services, gaming, lodging, and leisure industries. JJ graduated from Brandeis University. He joined the Hannah Senesh board in 2010, became Vice President in 2011, and sits on the development and finance committees. He and his wife, Michelle, have three children: Ruby (4th Grade), Eva (2nd Grade), and Sam (age 4). The family resides in Park Slope.

Amy Glosser, committee co-chair: Amy Glosser joined the board in 2007. Most recently she has opened BYKlyn Cycling and Fitness. Her other work experience includes 8+ years in consumer packaged goods marketing at Kraft Foods and other companies. Amy has worked with several non-profit institutions including the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, CASES and the Park Slope Jewish Center, where she served on the Board from 2004-2007. Amy has an MBA from Wharton, an MA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA from Vassar College. Amy is married to Janno Lieber, and is the mother of three children: Rhea (2014) Simon (7th grade) and Frayda (6th grade).

Jordy Green: Jordy Green is managing director of Portland House Partners LLC, the New York subsidiary of a Melbourne, Australia-based global private hedge fund. Jordy started his career in congressional politics in 1990, serving NH Congressman Richard Swett, son-in-law of Congressman Tom Lantos of California, as a staffer and then manager of Swett’s successful re-election campaign. From early 1993 to 1997, Jordy lived in Eastern Europe, working for the Dutch investment bank, ABN AMRO, where he helped source and execute corporate finance transactions throughout the region, and in Russia. In 1997 he and his colleagues started a public equities investment fund with Portland House Group of Australia. Jordy and his wife Samantha have three boys: Duncan (9), Reeve (7) and Tucker (4).

Debra Kaufman: Debra Kaufman is the Lower School Director at Hannah Senesh. She has a decade of classroom experience and a Masters in Education from Lesley University. She is an organizer of the independent Brooklyn Minyan movement and a bar/bat mitzvah tutor.

Iris Klein: Iris Klein is the Admissions Director at Hannah Senesh. For more than a decade, Iris has managed admissions, school financial aid, and, since its inception, been involed in SmallCity@Senesh. Iris also is a parent of two Hannah Senesh alums.

Lisa Kleinman: Lisa Kleinman is a founding parent of Hannah Senesh, a fixture in both the Brownstone Brooklyn Jewish community, and the Jewish professional world. Professionally, she has experience in marketing, non-profit management, writing and editing. Lisa also is a past Hannah Senesh Board Chair, and currently is Hannah Senesh’s Legacy Giving Chair. She is a parent to three Hannah Senesh alums.

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick, committee co-chair: Marcella Kanfer Rolnick focuses on creating meaning and value every day through her diverse family enterprise – which includes GOJO, the global leader in professional skin care and hygiene solutions, and an array of early-stage ventures and two philanthropic foundations. Marcella serves on multiple for-profit and non-profit boards, including American Jewish World Service. She earned her BA in Public & International Affairs at Princeton University and MBA from Stanford University. This is her first year on the Hannah Senesh Board. She and her husband, Josh, live in Prospect Heights with their three children, Meyer (4th grade), Heshel (2nd grade), and Lev (age 4).

Nicole Nash: Nicole Nash was Hannah Senesh’s first teacher and has been Head of School at Hannah Senesh since 2007. She has more than two decades of classroom and administration experience, and involvement in Jewish camping and informal education. She earned a Masters Degree in Education from Bank Street College of Education and attended the Principal’s Institute at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Emily Reisbaum: Emily Reisbaum is a co-founder of the law firm Clarick Gueron Reisbaum LLP, a litigation boutique specializing in complex commercial and intellectual property matters. Previously, Emily was an Assistant United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Emily earned her JD at New York University School of Law, and her BA at the University of Michigan, where she met her husband Scott Medintz. She and Scott have three children, all of whom have been at Hannah Senesh since kindergarten: Solomon (2013), Joshua (2015), and Miranda (2019).

If you have any questions about the strategic planning process, please reach out to any of the members of the Steering Committee at any time. We look forward to your ideas, insights and questions!