A Blog for the HOS Search Committee

Welcome!

Kadima Hebrew Academy's Head of School Search Committee now has a blog. This blog will be the central location for all things related to Kadima Hebrew Academy's search for a new Head of School.


After ten years under the able leadership of Dr. Barbara Gereboff, Kadima is looking for a new leader for its school. Look to this blog for updates and communiques regarding our efforts. It is also place to provide comments regarding our efforts as we go through this process.


As many of you know, we have assembled a terrific and broad Search Committee. The Committee members include:


Jack Sholkoff, Chair. Jack has served on Kadima’s Board of Trustees for seven years and am currently serving my fifth year as Executive Vice President. My son attends sixth grade in the middle school.

Rabbi Richard Camras. Rabbi Camras is the Rabbi of Shomrei Torah Synagogue and is a teacher, educator, and leader in the Jewish community. Rabbi Camras’ daughter is in the sixth grade at Kadima Heschel West Middle School.

Shawn Evenhaim. Shawn is the President of Kadima. He has served tirelessly in leading the school for the past several years, and in particular, was instrumental in providing the school with its permanent home. His oldest son is a recent Kadima graduate. He also currently has a son in the middle school and a son in the elementary school.

Brett Grauman. Brett is a member of the Board of Trustees and currently serves as our Treasurer. He has a son in Kadima’s pre-school and a daughter in second grade.

Leora Raikin. Leora’s son is in the fourth grade at Kadima and she has been actively involved in recruiting and volunteering for Kadima.

Mari Siegel. Ms. Siegel teaches social studies in the middle school and has taught at Kadima for thirty years.

Natalie Spiewak. Natalie is the President of Kadima’s parent teacher organization (PTO) and a member of our Board. She has a son in kindergarten and a daughter in third grade.

Mark Teitelbaum. Mark has served on the Kadima Executive Board for the past 5 years and currently is Executive Vice-President. He also served for many years on the Executive Committee of Heschel Day School (Northridge), and served on the Search Committee that found and engaged Heschel’s present Head of School. He is also a founder of New Community Jewish High School and a parent of a Kadima graduate.

Rabbi Stewart Vogel. Rabbi Vogel is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Aliyah and President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. He has extensive experience and training as an educator, administrator and teacher. His four children have attended Kadima and his youngest son is in the seventh grade.

Howard Wang. Howard is the founding director of Sierra Canyon School, one of the premier secular private schools in the United States. Howard has been a leader in private school education for more than three decades.

Elana Zimmerman. Elana is the immediate past president of New Community Jewish High School. Both of her daughters graduated from Kadima.

The Committee has met and has discussed the merits of using a Search Consultant or going it alone, since we have several members who have significant contacts within the education community. We have also had a detailed discussion concerning the type of leader we believe will best serve Kadima in the post-Gereboff era, and are also working closely with the Board of Trustees in this area. We are seeking input from a variety of sources--parents, teachers, community leaders and other experts as we move forward with the search process.

We are also conducting a brief internet survey regarding the tasks that our stakeholders believe are most important for the next Head of School. The survey results are coming in, and they are interesting, as they reveal that different stakeholders--board members, parents, teachers--have different perspectives on what the major priorities are. It will be the Search Committee's job to synthesize this information as we move forward with the search.

We've been pleased with the survey tool--Zoomerang--which allows us to conduct surveys quickly and inexpensively. We may use this material again as we seek to get as much input as we can from our various constituencies.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information and more reports as we move forward toward finding a new leader for Kadima Hebrew Academy. And you can always send an email to kadimaheadsearch@gmail.com with your confidential comments.

And please forgive the formatting errors, we are still learning how to blog!