Presence

I stopped by TA today around noon (my son, feeling sick this morning, miraculously recovered in time for pizza day). As I pulled through the parking lot, I noticed the stop sign in the middle of the drive had been replaced with a photo of R. Teichman, with the words "We Want R. Teichman" written underneath. As I pulled out of the parking lot, a group of high school boys (none of whom I recognized) were passing out flyers with the same message.

I stopped for a few minutes and asked the boys a few questions. There's not much new information to report, basically R. Teichman and the school mutually agreed to part ways next year. The boys attributed this to the school board (when I asked them who the school board consisted of, they named Joel Pleeter), one student commented that the board did not consider R. Teichman "frum enough," but there were no further details about what that meant. The group of boys I spoke to (about ten in number) all seemed genuinely upset about R. Teichman's departure and showed a real affection towards their Rosh Yeshiva (by which I was very impressed).

I also heard that R. Asia (spelling uncertain), the Rosh Yeshiva of the high school for the past two years, will also not be returning next year (R. Teichman functioned as the menahel of the high school and Rosh Yeshiva of the Beis Medrash, from what I understand).

So there really aren't any further details available. There was much speculation in the comments of the previous post, all I will say is that we really don't know anything yet regarding what changes are in store for TA, so it's too early to make any judgements as regards the way things are going. It is clear that there is some impetus to modify the school environment to the more yeshivish in an effort to retain the students who would normally transfer to Ner, but I don't have details as to what those changes are, although I expect we will hear something by the end of the week. The changes could be superficial, or they could be significant. Either way, I hope the board (or whoever is running things) articulates a clear vision as to the future goals of what TA high school will be striving towards over the next few years.