What is "Ease the Squeeze?" Over the last several years, Vancouver Talmud Torah, already the largest Jewish day school west of Ontario, has experienced unprecedented growth in enrolment in response to our continuous improvements to the curriculum. We are grateful for the inundation of students, and cherish every one of them. But our facility, parts of which date back to 1948, is starting to run out of space. Thanks to our expansion into the Beth Israel next door, we have been able to comfortably fit 510 students into our complex of buildings this year, and expect to be able to comfortably accommodate the growth in enrolment over the next several years. But our facilities won’t be able to accommodate the long-term growth in population or programs that we foresee for VTT. Several years ago the Board of Directors anticipated the coming space ‘squeeze’ and convened sub-committees to explore the feasibility and practicalities of building a new wing. Though the committees are making good progress in their work, we believe that now, in the initial months of a recession, is not an ideal time to launch a Capital Campaign. Instead we are making use of this period of economic uncertainty to engage deeply in the planning, permitting and early design phases that will prepare us for construction. Fortunately, the recession is throwing us some bargains, and we estimate the design and consultant costs at close to one million dollars. Last year’s Gentlemen’s Dinner raised the first quarter million, and our Gala in March 2009 raised the next quarter. Hopefully, by next year we will be in a position to launch the Capital Campaign, but regardless, we will continue to prepare for the new construction, so that when the time is right we will be ready to move quickly. We are entering an exciting period for VTT. We are conservatively estimating that the school will grow by another 100 students over the next few years, and we intend to have state of the art facilities to accommodate all of our students. The fundraising from our last Gala in 2007, allowed us to build a new computer lab and install a sophisticated technology platform throughout the school as well as at BI. These kinds of continuous improvements in our facilities and programs demonstrate the level of support that VTT will provide as we continue to grow. The growth of our school, combined with the generosity of donors like you, has allowed us to take VTT to a level of excellence only dreamed about by our founders. We hope you will continue to support us as we continue to educate the leaders of tomorrow, and continue to make our dreams come true. | We are grateful for the outpouring of support for our Ease the Squeeze initiative, most notably from Neil and Michelle Pollock and Pollock Clinics and from Mercedes Canada. Click this link to see a list of corporate, community and individual donors to the gala. |
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Ease the Squeeze |
