Due to the Vaad’s recent announcement regarding girls’ high school acceptances, we would like to pen the following open letter to the Toms River community:
Dear fellow Toms River residents,
We feel that the time is ripe for the Toms River community to begin thinking about opening a community type and community owned Bais Yaakov high school for our girls. As opposed to catering to a specific “type” and establishing itself as a certain “brand”, a community wide school would welcome any solid Bais Yaakov girl who wants to grow. This model is in place in most out of town communities and the results are remarkable. Students from these types of schools are well balanced and happy. There is an openness and wholesomeness when frum students of different academic abilities and from different family backgrounds join together b’achdus. As residents of Toms River, a community which already excels in living harmoniously and loving acceptance of one another, we feel that having such a Bais Yaakov high school right here in Toms River would be of great benefit to the girls of our community.
It is understood, that many parents may be concerned with the idea of sending their children to school together with children of families of varying backgrounds and standards. Although this viewpoint might have some merit, it inevitably ends up leading to tremendous competition between schools, as they are forced to scramble to brand themselves as a certain “type” catering to a specific clientele, resulting in many girls not getting accepted to any school and the ensuing humiliation that these girls end up experiencing. As such, we feel that it would be far better to have a single community school that all Toms River families send to; a school which would be run with the direct input and strict standards that will be set by our town’s own Rabbanim, who understand the different perspectives of the varied families living in our community, and thus can establish guidelines accordingly. This way, parents of all backgrounds will feel comfortable sending their children to such a school.
With commitment and participation from Toms River residents, we can make this dream into a reality in the coming years. We request of our readers to think about this proposal and join heads together with other concerned parents. Please realize that by merely agreeing in words that this is a great idea, while continuing to send your daughters to the more established “brand name” schools, this vision will never be able to become a reality. In order for this idea to come to fruition, the clientele would have to be inclusive of all members of our community: daughters of Rabbanim, Kollel families, balebatim, heimish, those who classify themselves as yeshivish, and those who don’t. The time is ripe and ready for positive changes to be implemented and put into place to benefit the precious Bnos Yisroel of our community, so that no Toms River girl should ever have to feel that she is not wanted somewhere. However, this can only be done if we join forces together.
