Shadyside’s Rodef Shalom offers classroom space to Falk Laboratory School students
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With back-to-school just a few weeks away, many local schools are scrambling to find ways to adhere to covid-19 guidelines regarding social distancing. School officials are looking to reduce student density on campus and space desks 6 feet apart, while still providing a good learning environment.
Meanwhile, at Rodef Shalom Congregation, a Reform Jewish temple in Shadyside, an entire wing of classrooms sits empty during the week.
“We have entire school wing that’s largely unused during the week. We only use it for religious school, which is primarily on weekends and evenings,” said Matthew Falcone, senior vice president at Rodef Shalom Congregation.
The congregation was sympathetic to schools trying to navigate a far-from-normal return to the classroom, Falcone said. He knew the extra space could help.
The Falk Laboratory School, a private kindergarten-through-eighth-grade laboratory school affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, was eager to move in.
About 140 middle school students, along with 20 teachers and administrators, from Falk Laboratory School will occupy Rodef Shalom’s school wing during the week, and the congregation will continue using it for religious school on weekends.
As covid-19 continues throwing new challenges at schools, Falk Laboratory School is embracing the chance for experimentation, which is one of their core pillars, according to Jeff Suzik, the director of Falk Laboratory School and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education.
“This seemed like a challenge that we could solve in any number of creative ways, including simply expanding our physical footprint if we didn’t have enough space to carry out social distancing in the ways being recommended by both the CDC and the state Department of Education,” Suzik said. “The opportunity to share space at Rodef Shalom came to our attention, and we jumped at the chance to collaborate with them.”
The school will be leasing the space for the duration of the academic year.
It’s a fitting match. The Falk family were congregants at Rodef Shalom dating back to the start of the 20th century, Falcone said. The family funded the first annex on the Rodef Shalom building and the congregation’s Falk Library is named for Fanny Edel Falk — also the namesake of Falk Laboratory School.
Today, Falcone said, some of the congregants at Rodef Shalom send their children to Falk.
“We really do have intertwined origin stories, and many shared philosophies about how the world does work and how it should work, as a progressive educational institution and a progressive congregation,” Suzik said.
The longstanding connection between the congregation and the school is just one reason Falcone said Rodef Shalom was eager to welcome these students.
“I think the impetus for this is trying to find a way to help in this crazy time of a pandemic,” Falcone said, adding that fostering education and community is important to the congregation.
He said it was also in keeping with the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam — or “repairing the world.”
“We see this as a very small thing we can do to repair what’s happening,” he said.