Appreciation and Community Building

APPRECIATION

AND COMMUNITY

BUILDING

תיינבו הכרעה הליהק

In early 2020, the Va’ad Horim, JCDS’ all-volunteer parent association, was preparing to broaden its base of volunteers, focus on teacher appreciation, run popular programs, and pilot large, crossgrade community-building opportunities. Then came the pandemic…

By David Cutler, P ’23, (’25), ’27, ’28, Past Va’ad Horim Communications

Before the 2020-21 year began, the Va’ad leadership came together to reimagine the year ahead. How could we engage the many new JCDS families without meeting them? How could we connect with teachers when we couldn’t enter the building? How could we facilitate a feeling of community among parents while everyone was socially distanced? We put our heads together and decided to focus on two critical areas — appreciating teachers and building community. From there, we invented new ways to deliver on our mission. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but in true JCDS spirit, we adopted a growth mindset and dove right in! Below are three creative solutions we took to last year’s unique challenges.

JCDS Parents Slack Community

To streamline Va’ad communications with and among parents, we took a bold step to shift everyone onto a new communications platform. Despite some initial hesitation, 65% of JCDS parents were on Slack by October. Parents found Slack to be a tremendously helpful way to stay connected and supported while navigating the challenges of parenting through a pandemic.

Teacher Appreciation

Parents usually see their child’s teachers and JCDS staff at drop-off and pick-up, class, and school events. During these casual interactions parents often get to know the teachers and have an opportunity to express their appreciation directly. Last year’s COVID-19 protocols deprived us of those serendipitous and daily exchanges. In response, the Teacher Appreciation Committee switched into high-gear, and mapped out a robust campaign to celebrate and thank our teachers and staff monthly. JCDS teachers have never been more deserving of our gratitude than last year! Here are a few highlights: • Regularly stocked the staff room with goodies • Catered lunches to staff from Pure

Cold Press

• Online message boards for each staff member with notes of appreciation from parents

“UnShabbaton”

With the Shabbaton weekend away canceled due to COVID-19, the Va’ad ultimately hosted “UnShabbaton” at Camp Grossman on a Sunday. Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain the entire day. Time to pivot! Within two days, the Va’ad reimagined the event, and hoped people would brave the elements in the name of community. And they certainly did! Roughly 250 JCDS folks came together to play soccer, go boating, make art, sing, learn to juggle, twist balloons, play gaga, swim (!), fish, practice archery, ride in golf carts, and simply be together. It was lovely and cathartic. Everyone had fun being together (drinking lots of hot chocolate) despite the cold and rain. In a sense, UnShabbaton was a microcosm of the JCDS community’s approach to the entire year: make the best of challenging circumstances and wrap each other in a warm embrace.