Lilmod U’lilamed: A Three-Part Training Program for New Rebbeim
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Setting an Example by Taking Risks
September 17, 2024
Rabbi Hillel Adler
The Problem
The education sector has been dealing with staffing shortages for several years and the trend is expected to continue. In 2023, 86% of U.S. K-12 public schools reported challenges in hiring teachers for the school year. The issue is not limited to the teacher shortage as 83 percent of public schools reported trouble hiring for non-teacher positions, such as classroom aides, transportation staff, and mental health professionals, according to data released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
While it is harder to find data regarding the shortages in Jewish day schools, anecdotal evidence abounds that Jewish day schools are not faring much better. The Consortium of Jewish Day Schools (CoJDS) is inundated with requests from schools looking for staff and much less from teachers looking to find jobs. In a CoJDS survey conducted in November 2023 to school administrators, 71% of respondents said that recruitment of Judaic teachers is a challenge for their school, and 84% said hiring general studies teachers is a challenge. As one survey respondent put it, “This appears to be our Achilles’ heel.”
There are several components to address regarding the issue of staffing, such as increasing the pipeline, pre-service and in-service training, and steps schools can take to increase retention. One significant tool to help match qualified personnel to schools is a job board platform. The wider the net such a platform can provide, the more effective it will be. As many of the positions in Jewish day schools are “not Jewish” in nature (including general studies teachers, bus drivers, and foodservice or facilities staff), it is equally important that such a platform reach outside the closed boundaries of the Jewish community to compete with public schools and non-educational institutions. Platforms such as Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Monster, and Google Jobs are busy connecting personnel to public and non-Jewish private schools. It is essential for Jewish schools to get in on the action and level the playing field.
CoJDS has been fortunate to be able to connect Jewish schools with a leading job board platform. In 2019, Jay Zachter, President at Apploi, approached Rabbi Glass with an offer to make the Apploi job board platform available to Jewish day schools for a fraction of the cost to the general public. As a former board president of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Mr. Zachter understood from the inside the challenges even large schools experience with staffing. As Apploi was fast becoming a premier staffing platform in the healthcare field, Mr. Zachter turned to CoJDS as a form of giving back to the Jewish day school community by sharing his success with a cause close to his heart.
The Solution and How it Works
Schools that have access to Apploi can post and manage jobs on one central platform. Once a school posts a job on Apploi, it appears on all the major job boards, including Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, Google, and Monster. In addition to being posted on the major job boards, all jobs are also posted on the CoJDS website, which includes tools for sorting through jobs based on job type and geographic location. All jobs and candidates are managed from a virtual dashboard and automated workflows take the burden off those tasked with HR responsibilities. Once an applicant is hired, the onboarding system can also be automated, saving school office staff valuable time and effort.
Schools that use Apploi get a special webpage for their organization that can be customized with images. Some schools set up a URL with their school’s domain and a subdomain such as “jobs” (for example, jewishdayschool.org/jobs) that redirects users to their Apploi page (a button or tab on the school website can lead to this page as well) giving applicants an easy way to find jobs at the school and a professional first impression.
Snapshot by the numbers
The list of schools that have enrolled with Apploi now totals over 160. Over 400 jobs are listed through the CoJDS Apploi account daily. What may shock some people is the power that can be seen from the back end of Apploi. There are over 66,000 applicants listed in all CoJDS current posted jobs. Hundreds of resumes are accessible by CoJDS for Judaic jobs as well as general studies jobs. It is true that the total database of applicants contains many unqualified applicants who do not bother to properly read the job description (e.g., people applying for a rebbi or morah position with no Jewish background!) However, there are many resumes of qualified teachers, administrators, and support staff. To the desperate cry of principals looking for staff, saying, “Where are all the teachers?” with Apploi we can answer, “We have a database of thousands of qualified teachers.”
It is interesting to note that there is no one profile of the type of school utilizing Apploi. As every school needs to hire staff at some point, the schools using Apploi vary in size from those with less than 40 students to schools with enrollments of over 1,200 students. The religious affiliation of the schools runs the entire gamut of the spiritual spectrum and locations across the continental United States.
Thinking outside the box
Larger schools can employ full-time HR staff with a well-oiled system for hiring and onboarding. In smaller schools, the hiring process is often put on the principal as one more task in a list of dozens, and a system like Apploi can save a lot of time and keep the process organized. Workflow-enhancing tools such as video screening questions, “knockout questions” to discourage unqualified candidates, and scheduling tools are just some of the features that are currently underutilized. HR managers or principals using Apploi should take some time to learn about all the tools Apploi offers.
Schools may consider utilizing Apploi for ALL staffing needs beyond teachers. Custodians, bus drivers, and gym teachers have some of the highest numbers of applicants. Not all jobs necessarily require “frum” personnel. Some Orthodox schools that are hesitant to hire people from outside the community may find that many positions can be filled by people willing to learn about the unique culture of a Jewish school.
A good platform is not everything. Schools should make sure their processes for advertising open positions and meeting with candidates is watertight. Take the time to craft well-worded job descriptions. Websites such as Indeed have algorithms for how they post jobs, and some jobs may not even make it to Indeed due to poor descriptions. Also, be sure to view applicant resumes and respond within 24 hours. Many schools post jobs and leave applications “unviewed” for days, losing potential candidates.
Finally, it’s a good idea to develop a database of potential hires for the future. Was the science teacher you interviewed not a good fit due to the hours? Keep their information on file for future crunch-time crises instead of scrambling from scratch.
Where do we go from here?
As Apploi is regularly listed as one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing companies in North America, the Jewish day school world is fortunate to be the beneficiary of this powerful tool. What are the next steps to fully utilize its capabilities? The more schools that sign up with Apploi, the more job seekers in the Jewish world will recognize it as the go-to place to find a job. But there is still much more we can do.
For example, we should consider harnessing the huge number of applicants that are currently in the database to connect the vast number of applicants with job opportunities as they arise. For example, if Rabbi Chaim Cohen applied for a job as a 5th-grade Rebbe in the Hebrew Academy of North Dakota in 2021, we should apprise Rabbi Cohen about job opportunities for other similar jobs available in 2025. It may also be a good idea to think of the CoJDS job board (with jobs and applicants from Apploi) as a primary source for job seekers to search and choose jobs. As CoJDS also has intimate knowledge of the cultures and specifics of many Jewish day schools, the CoJDS placement division can offer personal guidance beyond the cold listings found on the job boards.
Another possibility would be to leverage the onboarding tools in Apploi by developing industry standards for onboarding and making these available through Apploi. For example, what should a standard contract look like for a rebbe or morah? What are the standard background checks and documents necessary for a hire in a Jewish day school? Once a consensus is developed, these procedures can be implemented into the Apploi system to raise professionalism in hiring and prevent legal difficulties down the road. An additional aspect of the onboarding workflow that is being developed leverages CoJDS’ brand-new partnership with a full-service background check company.
As CoJDS focuses on new projects primarily based on the input of educators in the field, the feedback we receive on these ideas will encourage us to invest resources to implement them. In a world rapidly shaped by tremendous technological advances, Jewish education can benefit greatly by using the tools currently in place in other industries.
Rabbi Hillel Adler has worked in Jewish education since 2001, serving both as a teacher and administrator, using his experience as a CPA to manage school finances. Since 2014, he has worked with the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools on making day school education more accessible and attractive to the broader Jewish community. His extensive experience with small to mid-size schools outside major Jewish metropolitan centers has served well in understanding the needs of schools that look to enrollment growth as a key ingredient to their success. Rabbi Adler also manages the partnership between Apploi and the Consortium, assisting schools with their staffing needs.