Troubled Jewish Centers Get Chance to Stay Afloat

Four Jewish Community Centers, facing possible closure by their financially strapped management group, were given the opportunity to submit business plans that could carry them into the future.

Board members of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles initially feared they would be discussing the closure of centers in Silver Lake, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks and Granada Hills when they met Tuesday.

Marty Jannol, president of the Jewish Community Centers, or JCC, ordered leaders fighting to save the four centers to submit business plans by Wednesday for final decisions by the JCC board in February.

“We are establishing this expedited process to determine how we can best restructure the agency with the full input of the local communities,” Jannol said. Although JCC officials are “not making any promises at this time,” they hope that some centers might be saved, he said.

The centers have existed for more than 40 years and provide a range of education programs. There are seven altogether; three appear safe from closure.

The JCC discovered in October that it faced a $2.8-million deficit in its $16-million operating budget.

Some representatives of the four centers have already begun compiling data for budget plans covering the 2002-2003 school year.

“I think that we are going to find that we are not off the mark” of presenting a budget that avoids going into the red, said Janie Schulman, a member of the Silver Lake center who represented the site before board members.

Schulman said parents of children enrolled in programs at the four centers were estimating “things like insurance costs, maintenance costs and teaching costs.”

But drafting such plans is difficult, she said, because the JCC has not provided the four centers with financial data, which would help in making estimates for the future.

Jenny Isaacson, whose children attend preschool at the Silver Lake facility, said, “It is frustrating because our center needs to start enrolling kids for next year.”

Still, she is encouraged that the four centers have a chance to submit plans that could keep them afloat.