Schechter Manhattan school to close at end of year as enrollment declines

Institution will merge into the Reform Rodeph Sholom school as average class size shrinks to 7 students New York Jewish Week - Schechter Manhattan, a Conservative Jewish elementary and middle school on Manhattan's Upper West Side, will close at the end of the school year.

The school is framing the closure, which it announced in a video chat with parents on Tuesday evening and in a subsequent email, as a collaboration with Rodeph Sholom School, a nearby Reform Jewish school that is affiliated with a synagogue of the same name. Schechter is encouraging its 63 students, in grades K-8, to enroll at Rodeph Sholom, which will also be hiring Schechter's head of school and another senior administrator to lead a new Judaic studies program.

"Schechter Manhattan will be planning and working towards joining forces with Rodeph Sholom School as of July 1, 2024, thereby ceasing operations as an independent entity on June 30, 2024," read Tuesday night's email from the trustees of the school, which was founded in 1994 and moved in 2011 to a new development on 100th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Schechter Manhattan's closure means that only one school with roots in...