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New Hires For Leadership Roles
Rabbi Yisroel Weiner has accepted the position of Judaic Studies Principal beginning this fall. The Judaic Studies Principal position is a role that will strengthen CTA’s commitment to Jewish learning and expand our students’ opportunities to learn, celebrate and connect to our Jewish heritage, traditions, and the Torah. Curriculum, programming, mentorship, and inspiring Jewish life and learning will define the position. Through the interview process, Rabbi Weiner showed that has established himself as an intentional educational leader. His more than 15 years of professional experiences developing curricula, implementing programming, and leading large teams of educators will be a wonderful asset to CTA. On behalf of the school community, we look forward to welcoming Rabbi Weiner, Suri, and their entire family to Columbus and CTA.
Mrs. Constance Borro will become the Lower School Principal. She has already been working with our teachers and students since February as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction, K-6 and was a strong candidate for the Principal position. She also has been leading a series of professional development workshops with Upper School faculty since Spring 2023. Her background as an educator, instructional leader, curriculum designer, and assessment specialist with deep experience in public and private schools PreK-12 will bring a wealth of knowledge to CTA. Her work is rooted in an unwavering belief that students and teachers can achieve amazing things together when provided with the right support.
I am grateful to the teachers, parents, community Rabbis, and school administrators who took part in the interview process. CTA and Columbus’ hospitality is contagious and enthusiastically welcomes both Mrs. Borro and Rabbi Weiner who will be tremendous assets to the educational leadership.
Learning Center Program Review
Our Learning Center has always been a flagship program for CTA to help us meet the learning needs of all of our students. We were able to expand the Learning Center this year, adding Rachel McCracken as a dedicated Upper School Intervention Specialist to join with Allison Mast and Connor Hamilton, Intervention Specialists for the Lower School who all carry full student portfolios to support student academic development.
As part of our overall improvement plan, we engaged an outside consultant to audit our academic intervention services which includes the Learning Center. Dr. Christina Billman, a senior lecturer at OSU teaching undergraduate and graduate-level special education as well as multisensory reading instruction for children at risk, reviewed the programs, processes, and data encompassing our Learning Center in addition to conducting numerous interviews and observing interventions across grades. Her comprehensive report was divided into 4 domains: Implementing Interventions, Assessments & Data Collection, Reporting Progress, and Professional Development. Dr. Billman was highly impressed with all three of our intervention specialists and their practices, and she gave us recommendations for improving regular and consistent communication to parents.
As part of her recommendations, CTA is seeking to hire a half-time Director of Academic Intervention, as the workload has exceeded what.3 can be expected of our Principals. A JewishColumbus Community Impact Grant will help fund this position. We feel very proud of the services we offer and look forward to improving systems which will benefit all of our students.
ISACS Accreditation Self Study
This entire school year, CTA has been engaged in a reflection process known as the ISACS Self Study. As part of our regular re-accreditation cycle by the Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS), all operations of the school have been divided into chapters and assigned staff or lay leadership to write about our current ability to meet ISACS standards, our strengths, our challenges, and our plans & priorities. This document will be submitted to ISACS this summer, and we will welcome a visiting team to Columbus next fall who will come to observe us in action. Our ISACS accreditation is a pride of our school measuring us against regional private independent schools. Thank you to Eliza Delman who has taken the lead on the Self Study. More information on the visiting team and accreditation will be forthcoming in August/September.
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