The petition
To the Board of Directors of Temple Beth Sholom,
We understand that the Congregation is to be asked to approve a long-term (18-year) contract with Rabbi Mishkin at the upcoming special meeting. Such a contractual arrangement will establish the spiritual and educational tone for our Congregation for the next generation.
In light of the foregoing, we respectfully request the creation of a Strategic Planning -- Human Resources Subcommittee (the "Subcommittee"). The purpose of the Subcommittee would be to consider, and make recommendations, on the specific human resource issues facing Temple Beth Sholom's families and children (toddlers through teenagers and young adults). The scope of the review would exclude the Goldie Feldman Academy. We are interested in participating with the Subcommittee to determine where the Congregation hopes to be (say, in five years), where we are today, and what it will take to get to our destination. The scope would explicitly include, but not be limited to, the Assistant Rabbi role and the Religious School Director role, and the Subcommittee's purview would include guidance on staffing as well as roles. We believe that the work undertaken by this Subcommittee should be informed by a formal survey of the Temple's families with pre-school, primary, middle school, and high school aged children. The results of the survey should be shared with the Board of Directors, together with a set of strategic planning recommendations based on the Subcommittee's deliberations.
We request that the Subcommittee's draft report be circulated by April 1, with its final report submitted to the Board at its April meeting. This timeline should alleviate any concern that there would be a conflict with the schedule of negotiations surrounding Rabbi Goldsmith's employment contract.
Finally, we request that the Subcommittee be co-chaired by a member of the Board and Jeff Schwartz, and that its membership include: (i) a representative cross-section of the Temple's families with pre-school, primary, middle school, and high school aged kids and (ii) no more than one additional member of the Board of Directors.
We firmly believe that the review described above is a healthy and sensible step to enable the Temple to meet the needs and interests of our next generation. We look forward to working with you to build upon the foundation that you have established for the next generation.
We respectfully submit this request to the Board, and thank you for your consideration.
The following members in good standing of Temple Beth Sholom endorse the recommendation described above.
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