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Welcome from the President
Dr. Ira Zackon
President and Chair Board of Trustees
Dear HACD Family:
At the foundation of our educational mission of “academic excellence rooted in tradition” is community in its many facets.
Our students grow up amongst a community of children and families that is distinct from the public school experience. Our Faculty and Administration, who teach and lead with a personal nurturing relationship to our individual students, are an extension of the HACD family. With parents, they are partners and role models in the intellectual, social and ethical development of our children. In addition to graduating as mature young adults, well prepared academically to achieve and succeed in their futures, our children develop lasting bonds with each other and their teachers that stretch into their lives beyond graduation.
We are a diverse community of families. We are indeed a community school for our small Jewish community. We welcome all Jewish families, from any background, secular or religious, denominationally affiliated or not, including Jewish children of patrilineal descent as recognized by the Reform community. It is our beauty, depth and challenge to be such a community, diverse yet living and learning together in respectful relationship. This extends to respectful tolerance in the larger outside world as well.
Our Judaics curriculum provides Jewish literacy and skills, that are valuable as each student matures as unique individuals- intellectually, ethically and spiritually- and in support of each of our families’ particular modes of Jewish living. Our culminating 8th grade trip toIsrael solidifies identity and connection, and along with our “school spirit”, we provide the well established foundation of supporting the development of involved, community-minded young Jewish adults, including future leaders in many realms.
It is the dedication of volunteer community members on our Board of Trustees and on our working committees, especially the leadership of the Officers of our Board, who give of their time, talent and support, to safeguard the mission and values of our school, secure its financial sustainability through sound fiscal management and fundraising and point the school into the future through strategic planning and implementation.
It is a fact that each year, the cost of providing the quality of our educational program exceeds our realizable tuition income, both to keep affordable access and meet significant tuition assistance needs. Therefore the grants we secure and fundraising revenues raised through the efforts of Development and our Head of School are critical, both annually and towards endowments to sustain the future. There is no expression of gratitude enough for all those that work so hard in the realm of fundraising and we are so deeply thankful to our community of donors and the Jewish Federation for their essential support.
Ira Zackon
