Masada to farewell Lindfield
MASADA College is set to sell off or lease its Lindfield campus, the site where it first opened in 1966, in an attempt to secure its long-term future and that of the north shore community.
MASADA College is set to sell off or lease its Lindfield campus, the site where it first opened in 1966, in an attempt to secure its long-term future and that of the north shore community.
The primary school and early learning centre for three-year-olds will relocate to St Ives, where it will join the high school, when the 2014 school year starts in January.
There are also plans underway to move the preschool to St Ives in the near future.
“Planning for this move has been underway for some time and the College executive are in the final stages of this next step in the Masada journey,” president David Guth said.
The school has been struggling for the past few years and has been receiving $300,000 worth of emergency funding from the JCA every year.
The decision to consolidate onto one campus will save the school millions of dollars over the next 10 years.
“The benefits of a consolidated college are clear and numerous,” Guth said.
“These advantages go beyond the anticipated fiscal and budgetary savings and extend to all of our students, parents and members of staff because our 2013 College slogan “Unity in CommUnity” alludes to this social connection built on close relationships.”
Guth said once the entire college is on one campus, students will have a seamless journey from the early learning centre through to year 12, there will be a greater opportunity for cross-class interaction, the primary school students will have access to improved facilities, including libraries, sporting grounds and auditoriums, and there will be increased opportunity for interaction, learning and development for all staff members.
He said that leaving the Lindfield campus, the founding site of Masada College, will be a nostalgic and historic step. “We recognise this is an important occasion for so many of our wider community who have journeyed through the junior school on our Lindfield campus,” Guth said.
In 1962, a group of Jewish parents established the North Shore Jewish kindergarten and four years later it was expanded with the foundation of Masada Primary School.
In 1966 the school only had 14 students on the premises of the North Shore Synagogue in Lindfield.
“We are planning to combine our annual Chanukah concert with a special event to give the community an opportunity to say its farewells and look back over the 51 years since our first preschool opened.”
Masada College parent, and former student, Robyn Silber said she is excited about seeing the entire school on one campus.
“Masada has always been like a family and now it will be even more with everyone together,” Silber said.
JOSHUA LEVI
Masada principal Wendy Barel, immediate past president Trevor Lorge and students pose with Masada’s new buildings in 2011.
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