Cool Schools: Bader Hillel High

Mike McShane: Hello and welcome back to another edition of Cool Schools. This is Mike McShane, Director of National Research at EdChoice, and today I’m talking to Rabbi Yossi Bassman, who is the Director at Bader Hillel High School in beautiful Glendale, Wisconsin.

This is a really interesting conversation that we can have today that touches on a lot of concepts. We talk about Jewish education. We talk about participating in choice programs, particularly as a school with a distinctive ethos.

And I think that there are lots of folks around the country that might be interested in the conversation that we have there and just general kind of experiences of running a school that is currently small but looking to grow. Lots of very interesting ground that we’re able to cover in this discussion. So without further ado, here is my conversation with Rabbi Yossi Bassman, the Director of Bader Hillel High.

Well, Rabbi Bassman, thank you so much for joining us on the Cool Schools podcast today. I was wondering if we could just sort of start with the big picture. Can you give us a little bit of an overview of the school?

How many students do you serve? How long have you been in operation? The kind of key details for everybody.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Sure. Well, Mike, thanks for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be on with you.

So Bader Hillel High, the school that I have the privilege to lead, to direct, we’re located in Glendale, Wisconsin. And we’re a Jewish high school, primarily geared to the local Jewish community. But we also have a constituent from across North America and beyond.

And we’ve been in operations, we’re finishing our 13th year and we have 81 students.

Mike McShane: Fantastic. So when you think about what makes your school distinct, what makes it sort of stand out in a place like Wisconsin, where now there’s robust private school choice, there’s lots of public schools to choose from, charter schools, all those things out there. What makes Bader Hillel High distinct in that market?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: So Bader Hillel High is a Jewish high school, which means that together with the robust college prep, high school education, we offer alongside that a rigorous, relevant, inspiring, Judaic education. So that definitely makes us very unique here in Wisconsin. Our dual curriculum approach to education and learning, both the college prep, general education and the Jewish education component.

Mike McShane: And so for people who may not be familiar, what might be the kind of content of the sort of Jewish education side, the Judaic side of there? People have heard of college prep before and others, but they may be less familiar with what might go on in those courses, subject matter, pedagogy, etc.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Sure. So a Jewish education has been something that has been a part of Jewish life for thousands of years. We’re actually speaking right now during the holiday of Passover.

And the holiday of Passover, from a very biblical standpoint, if you look at some of the verses in Deuteronomy and Exodus, it’s all about and tell your children how our forefathers were slaves in Egypt and God took us out to make us free. The element of communicating that to your children is the foundation of Jewish education. So it’s very broad.

It starts from learning the Bible and original Hebrew, understanding the five books of Moses. So our students are largely at least duolingual. It’s exploring our history.

It’s also exploring the values that the Torah and Judaism has to share with us. We look at the Torah. When I use the word Torah, I’m referring to the translator would be the Bible.

But the Torah is a guide on how to live an ethical, moral and inspired life. So we’re talking about Bible. We’re talking about Jewish law.

We’re talking about Jewish philosophy and Jewish history. That would kind of be the buckets in which our Jewish education sits in.

Mike McShane: And I would imagine that interweaves into other subjects as well. Literature, history, science. Do you find ways that those complement one another?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Sure. So I’m not I’m not as steeped in other religions as I am in Judaism. But the academic courses in our today component are academically rigorous.

They really push the student in higher level thinking and analytical skills in being able to decode a text in a foreign language, being able to make a case, make an argument. So the Socratic Seminar is a tool that’s seen in many of our subjects, both Judaic and general studies, being able to write, being able to understand different perspectives. It certainly is broadens education.

And in the world of A.I., where it’s really not about knowing facts, it’s really about the integration, being able to make connections is really where we see the greatest value in education and being able to make connections across subjects, across worlds and across millennia is really is part of a basic day at Bader Hill High.

Mike McShane: That’s fantastic. Now, you mentioned earlier that your students, some are local and some from come from across the country. I’d be curious, where do you find your students and the families that come to your school?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Usually at the local Walmart. That was a joke. So we, we are a niche school, a niche Jewish school.

And being that we’re niche, there’s there’s many people looking for what we offer. So often Jewish high schools across North America have either a stronger emphasis or take general education more seriously or vice versa, the Judaic education more seriously. I think what we’ve really been able to excel at is the excellence in both.

One is not in place, the other one really complements the other. So for those who are really looking for a really strong general education, not looking to sacrifice in that area, while also really gaining the mindset, perspectives and skills of being an inspired Jew in this world, a world which recently, but it’s really been a rhythm in our history. It’s not always the easiest or the.

It at times requires courage to know I’m Jewish, I’m proud, and I feel we have a message that is relevant to my life and to those that I encounter with. So those that are seeking both of those with excellence would would search us. So we’re affiliated with the Chabad movement, the Lubavitcher Wisconsin.

So many of our students hear about us from their Chabad centers that are located in every city across North America and beyond.

Mike McShane: I mean, Chabad is one of the most fascinating, interesting, positive organizations that I think I’ve ever come across. I don’t think I didn’t fully appreciate until making some friends that were involved with that, understanding the incredible network all over the world of Chabad houses and Chabad organizations. For people who might not be familiar with Chabad, they should be.

It’s a really incredible organization. Could you do the kind of elevator explanation for Chabad? Sure.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Chabad has a 250 year tradition. The leaders of Chabad, both pre-war and following World War II, following the Holocaust, they came to the United States in 1940. So the most recent Rebbe and his father-in-law came here in 1940, 1941.

And its mission was always to share Judaism, share its messages with Jews and with the world beyond. And while for most of Jewish history, the Jewish communities were largely concentrated in various parts of the world, after World War II, there really there wasn’t a place where there weren’t Jewish communities, where there weren’t Jews. Often there weren’t Jewish communities.

And the mission of Chabad was to bring Judaism to Jews and the world wherever they exist. So it’s very entrepreneurial. It usually starts as a mom and pop shop in any city.

And for the past 60 years, they’ve really developed into an incredibly robust organization offering services from preschool to holidays, to visiting the sick, to special needs. It’s a full service Jewish organization that’s there to share, you know, Torah, Judaism, and spread kindness and love with everyone they can.

Mike McShane: Yeah, I was sort of alerted to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. I’ve only really read, haven’t seen it.

But his speaking, and actually there’s actually brilliant videos on YouTube, lots of interactions that he had with people coming in and them coming for advice. I highly recommend people checking those out. He was an incredible man, incredibly inspiring with a message for, I think, for Jews and non-Jews alike, that I’ve really benefited a great deal in my life from reading and watching videos and things of his.

So Chabad is still alive today, but he was an incredible man.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Yes, and education was at the forefront of all of his activities and both formal education and the Rebbe believed and, you know, we try to live that education is not about just, it’s about humans. Humans need to continually educate themselves with both the teachings of Torah as well as continue growing. It’s all about rededication and learning and growing to constantly improve our capacity and ability to be transparent and really be emanators of godliness that we all are in touch with when we allow ourselves to be.

Mike McShane: So now your students, after they graduate, what do they tend to do? Is it mostly heading to university? Is it some for rabbinical studies? Is it a mix?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Yeah, so I think it mirrors largely a typical high school. The vast majority do continue on to a four-year university. Many of them do take gap years for kind of an intensive one-year Torah study, often in Israel, but it’s, I think, a key pillar of our school is very student-centered.

I like to say that at Bader Hill High, students can very vividly articulate that they understand how all of the adults in the building are there to help them grow. Often there’s, often it’s not felt in a school and it’s like this adult wants me to do this and this adult wants me to do that and there can be that tension. At Bader Hill High, our students know and obviously the adults know very powerfully that we’re here to help each of our students grow in the greatest degree possible that really meets their skill sets, their temperament, and their hopes.

So that also transfers well into what our students do next. There’s a lot of options and it’s really about having those conversations. We hope to start them in 10th grade, latest 11th grade, and really work with a student, their parents, their, you know, the guardians, and helping them make the best choice and meet their goals.

And we have a very, very high success rate in students getting accepted into their first school of choice and they’re not done with us once they move on. They stay very close with our teachers, myself, and many of our other administrators during various stages in their life, touching base, asking for advice, or just checking in.

Mike McShane: Now, Jewish students looking to college today. I mean, I think something that we’ve seen over the course of the last couple of years is some really, I mean, appalling examples of anti-Semitism at what we would historically think of as some of our most quote-unquote elite colleges across the country. I’ve seen at least some discussion online that families looking for different schools, that there’s been more of a move kind of to the South, schools like Vanderbilt and others that are specifically reaching out to the Jewish community.

Are you seeing changes in enrollment patterns? Are you seeing changes in priorities? Are you seeing people looking to either different schools or different parts of the country, places that are more welcoming to Jewish students?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: So, I can’t say that I have, you know, hard data on that. I think that in general, our student body, so we’re talking about the past 14 years, I don’t think there was a huge buy-in into the Ivy League school system as that being the ticket to success. It wasn’t and therefore it isn’t.

I think most important for our families and for our students is ensuring that there’s a strong religious community for them. I think that is more important than whatever other types of noise and other communities exist there. I think that if you’re internally strong, it’s not fun when you hear things, you know, shouted in your direction, but if you have a safe place, if you have a place where you could be learning and growing, at times it even brings out an inner strength.

So, I don’t think we’re looking to be at places that have robust anti-Semitism. To put it that way, but even more important than not having that is having a very strong community where you could practice being Jewish, where you can learn being Jewish, and you can share that in a healthy way.

Mike McShane: So now, your teachers at your school, where do you tend to recruit them from?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: So, it’s, there’s no, you know, rhyme and reason. I think God is on our recruitment team. So, we don’t have the most competitive salaries or, you know, benefits package, yet we do have, I think, the best teachers.

So, I think it’s the great teachers really buying into our mission and really wanting to stay with us. It’s a very healthy and happy environment for both staff and students. I think that’s a huge benefit.

We do have some of our teachers that were, you know, were senior students by us or, you know, volunteered for half a semester while they were in school that came back to teach by us. I’m thinking of two specific teachers. But I think that we have a very strong culture.

I don’t think it’s that difficult to hire teachers. I think it’s difficult to hire great teachers and happen to stay. So, I think we have almost 50% of our staff have been with us for seven plus years.

So, ensuring that we can also attract great teachers and have them really feel like Bader Hill High is an amazing place to be part of is how we retain the great teachers. And we’ve had some referrals. I have a colleague who would love to work here.

But yeah, that’s our biggest benefit that we can offer. You’ll come every day to a happy place where students largely, at most days, are excited about learning.

Mike McShane: Now, do you all participate in any of the state choice programs?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Yes. So, when we started in 2012, although the Milwaukee Public School Choice Program has been a long, you know, was in existence at that time, what we initially did was we had all of our students enroll in an online virtual public school. It was actually out of the Waukesha School District.

And that made the most sense for us to open up year one, being able to offer multiple grades with all types of, you know, the full array of classes. If we’re speaking electives, APs, we were able to open up the school and say we offer more dual enrollment courses and AP courses than any other Jewish high school across the country. I remember sharing that.

But about five years in, we had enough critical mass to be able to offer all of our core courses with our own teachers on-site, in-person. And since that transition, we joined the Wisconsin School Choice Program, both Milwaukee and the state. And for about 60% of our students, it really allows for 70% of the cost of their education to be covered through vouchers.

Mike McShane: Now, there are choice programs that are proliferating around the country. Texas just passed a big one. Other states are expanding theirs.

And there are lots of school leaders right now that are thinking about whether or not they should participate. And they’re weighing, obviously, the pros and the cons. They see the opportunity for students to be able to finance an education that they might not otherwise be able to.

But they also have worries. They’ve been operating independently as private schools. And now, suddenly, they’re getting in money from the state.

How have you all navigated being a part of that? You’re a school with a distinct identity and with a distinct mission. And yet, you’re participating in a state program to finance schools.

Have you been happy with the way that it’s worked, able to maintain your independence? How do you think through those things? And maybe directed, if someone is sitting in Arlington, Texas, or Mobile, Alabama, or whatever, and they’re thinking, should our school participate?

Should it not? How do you think through participating in the program?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Right. So, obviously, every school has its own set of core values and mission. And they need to ascertain if there’s any conflict.

We always knew that affordability and sustainability were vital, were critical, and was really the only way to be able to offer a great school. And obviously, we wouldn’t do anything that we thought was in conflict with our core mission. But I can speak specifically about the Wisconsin School Choice Program.

There’s no infringement on our religious identity, on what we teach, on how we teach, and even who teaches. There is oversight on our fiscal sustainability. There is oversight on safety for students.

And all of the requirements that the Wisconsin School Choice Program has in our school, I don’t know if each of them we would have done just because we felt like it, as in them being imposed on us by the program are the primary reason we do them. We can talk about accreditation. But virtually every one of them, I think, is directly positive and attributes to our mission.

Yeah, I think it’s largely lean. It’s largely focused on ensuring there’s no fraud in the program, and that there’s transparency, and that families and students are being treated well and safely.

Mike McShane: So you mentioned accreditation there. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Right. So we’ve gone through three accreditation processes every five years.

I feel it’s like an annual physical. Sometimes there’s going to be some revelations, and the doctor’s going to come a bit more stern, and he’s going to say, like, based on all that you’ve shared about your school and the documents that we’ve looked, there’s some serious issues with your sustainability. You’re losing $100,000 a year, or there is really no scope and sequence when it comes to your science.

So the process is driven, and the narrative is told by the school and your peers who are part of the accreditation team, are judging, are interpreting it, asking you questions, and are going to make recommendations that, from their perspective, will make your school achieve their mission in a better way. So schools that are, it depends on where a school, on what stage of development the school is. And if a school is in its earlier stages of development, perhaps they’ve been around for a while, but just things being documented and systems being in place.

If that’s not in place, then yeah, the accreditation is a huge lift and is hard. I look at the accreditation process as a real opportunity, even though we really do want to always be growing and working. And even if we didn’t have an accreditation, we’d be doing all these things.

In my experience, that’s not always the case. And when there’s a deadline, we work well, like our students. And when there’s clear expectations, just like our students, we also step up to the occasion.

And it’s, yeah, there’s a level of stress. And I think it’s a healthy level of stress.

Mike McShane: So now you all have been around for 14 years. A question I really like to ask school leaders is that if you could go back 14 years ago to when you were starting the school, is there advice that you would give, or whoever was starting the school, if there was advice that you could give or lessons that were learned that you could have potentially avoided at the time, what advice would you give to the folks founding the school?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Right. So there’s two thoughts that come to mind. One thought is, I hope I am glad I didn’t speak to myself.

There’s a certain amount of naivete and fire in your belly. And we’re going to do everything we need to do to make this happen. And if you don’t fully know what that entails, that’s what’s going to allow you to get started.

Because it’s very challenging. When you’re running a school, you’re dealing with souls, with people. And they have parents who care and love about, you know, there’s so many components.

I tell people even to run an incredibly bad school takes incredible amount of effort. And to run a good school is that much more challenging. So I think that on the one hand, I’m glad that I was very young.

And I’m glad that my prior experience was minimal. Have great mentors is both something that I was blessed with, but it would still be my advice to myself. And mentors that aren’t only brilliant, but also believe in you versus those that are going to only point out why it will likely not work out.

And yeah, I mean, it’s why I what I was what I’d love to tell myself also includes the incredible moments of joy, to really embrace those and lean into them, the whys of what we do. So it could be a moment, it could be a phone call from a parent from a student. So really capture that, document that.

And when things get really rough, the impact that schools have that we have on students, on students’ lives and the lives of their yet-to-be-owned families is incredible. And as I transition in my role, I’m in touch with a lot of our alumni. And to really embrace what they have to share about their experience, what they still lean on and remember and live with is the why of what we do.

And I think that that why is as powerful as the challenges. And I think that’s why those that are in it for the right reasons are able to push through all of the challenges, because there are and there always will be. And it just puts things in perspective.

Like, it’s a challenge. You know, what are my, what can I do about it? How can I respond to it and do my best?

But remember that, yeah, we’re everything we do is life-changing.

Mike McShane: Absolutely. As a final question, I’d love if you could look forward. What do you think the next year, five years, 10 years holds for the school?

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: So growth. So growth in numbers and in physical facilities. We definitely took the path of first developing our vision, our identity, our culture, and to really take that and build out our facilities, continue to grow our student body.

And then the challenge of ensuring that with the growth, the magic stays, our core beliefs stay constant, and that growth hopefully amplifies who we are versus, you know, creates noise or changes who we need to be for our students. So I feel that it’s not inevitable. Like, there are a lot of case studies of schools that have lost their North Star.

So with the growth, and it’s been gradual, so year-over-year growth for 14 years is great. But as we transition to a building campaign, as we transition to perhaps 65, 70% more seats than we currently have to ensure that, you know, the leadership and the culture stays strong and stronger.

Mike McShane: Rabbi Bassman, thank you so much for joining the podcast to talk about your cool school.

Rabbi Yossi Bassman: Thanks so much for having us, and health and blessings for all.

Mike McShane: Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. There were lots of things in there that kind of, that was unexpected for me, that I learned a lot understanding the different kind of shades of Jewish education, the different types of schools that are out there. You know, as many people who listen to this podcast know, I come from a Catholic school background.

I went to Catholic schools. I taught in Catholic schools. And so I sort of know the landscape of the different types of Catholic diocesan Catholic schools, Catholic schools associated with different religious orders and the sort of reputations that the different religious orders have.

But frankly, once I stepped outside of Catholicism, I know that landscape far less well. So knowing the different like Lutheran synods and what’s going on there, I don’t really know how they relate to one another. But so I was really happy that Rabbi Bassman could kind of walk through the different types of Jewish schools that exist out there.

And look, and I think it was important for us to discuss antisemitism. It’s obviously disgusting, the rise of antisemitism that we’re seeing across America right now. And frankly, in the broader world right now, it’s unacceptable and it’s horrible.

And all people of goodwill should be standing shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish friends to say that that’s not okay. It’s not acceptable. And to tell those jerks that are doing it to kick rocks.

But I think one of the things that we can always do, and I think that something Rabbi Bassman was talking about there and the Chabad movement more broadly, you know, a big mission of theirs is to be kind of light to the world, to be positive and to highlight good things that are happening and to try and build more of those good things in a world that desperately needs them. So hopefully I did my small part here today, highlighting a school that is doing good things, bringing attention to that school. Hopefully people can learn from that and the ripple effects of good deeds can spread out into the broader educational world and the world in general.

So anyway, hope you enjoyed that conversation. I certainly did. As always, please like and subscribe to this podcast.

If you haven’t already, please leave us reviews. That helps other people find it. And as always, I’m always on the lookout for new cool schools.

So please send them my way. If you know of a cool school, and again, it could be traditional public, it could be charter, it could be private, they could participate in choice programs, they could not participate in choice programs, they could be big, they could be small, they could be for older kids, it could be young for younger kids. I’m absolutely ecumenical in trying to find cool schools and learn from them.

So if you know of them, email me. You can find my email pretty easily. Tweet them at me, send them my way.