Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

N.J. Schechter School Closes Three Weeks Before Start of Classes

The Solomon Schechter School of the Raritan Valley in East Brunswick, N.J., will not re-open its doors this school year.

The abrupt decision to close the school came only three weeks before the first day of classes.

On August 7, parents received an email from the head of school stating: “Unfortunately, I have to confirm what is, for all of us, the worst possible news for our school. Based on our current financial situation, the Board has voted to begin the process of closing down the school, effective immediately.”

Karen Skinazi, a mother of two students, said she and other parents weren’t previously aware that the 32-year-old school was struggling financially. But enrollment had dropped from 300 students at its peak to 120 students last year.

In the days following the closing announcement, parents, teachers and administrators met and initially believed that if all the students stayed enrolled and fundraising efforts were successful, that the school could remain open.

But, at the same time, families were inundated with emails and calls from other schools including neighboring Schechter schools, which offered identical financial aid packages and free busing for the students who will now need to travel further to attend Jewish day school.

At the final parents meeting, only 40 children were still enrolled, a number too small to sustain the school.

Check back soon for more on this story.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.