Bail-out can fend off Massada merger

AMALGAMATION with a like-minded Adelaide private school remains the only option for South Australia’s beleaguered Massada College, unless it can be rescued by a major donor.

That’s the scenario mapped out by Jewish Community Council of South Australia (JCCSA) president Norman Schueler, after Adelaide’s only Jewish school went into voluntary administration last month, with debts of around $500,000.

Schueler told The AJN this week that Massada was tentatively looking for a private school whose teaching philosophy was complementary with Massada’s in method and quality, which had a good teacher-student ratio, and embraced Judaism, Jewish values and Israel.

While he would not name schools, he said there were partner schools short-listed by the Massada board.
“At first pass, we can fit that bill,” he said.

Schueler noted that an amalgamation model involving Massada has worked in the past when it partnered with Pembroke School, a co-educational, non-denominational school from early learning to year 12, although Pembroke was not presently being considered.

He said local donations amounting to $20,000 and a single interstate donation of $10,000, announced after a JCCSA meeting held last week, has provided a valuable stop-gap, enabling the school to remain operational while weighing amalgamation strategies.

“Now we have breathing space, and that’s what we’re exploring,” he said.

The tiny primary school, with only about 20 pupils currently on its rolls, has fallen victim to cure-all financial plans in the past, said Schueler.

“Confidence in maintaining the school has been destroyed over the years because we’ve had so many [development] plans and it has always been presented as the one that will fix it and it hasn’t worked. It has destroyed a degree of confidence and certainty in donors.

“It’s led us to believe that unless there’s an enormous benefactor from interstate, we’re going to have to amalgamate with another school,” he said.

PETER KOHN