Mission Statement
Utilizing our combined expertise and insights, acquired over decades of experience in day schools and public education, we will guide and direct principals, parents and lay leaders towards interacting productively, harmoniously and with unity of purpose, so that they may successfully fulfill their mission on behalf of their school and its children.
 
Statement of Purpose
Recognizing that running a school, whether established or start-up, has evolved into an increasingly complex operation reflecting the growing sophistication of its many constituencies, Academic Leadership Connections seeks opportunities to bring together these entities, having at times conflicting agendas, and develop among them a trusting, positive and productive relationship.
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Services
 

LEADERSHIP SUPPORT
 
 
Acquisition of Trust
Acquiring trust is the opposite of weight control – difficult to gain and easy to lose. The Acquisition of Trust workshop of Academic Leadership Connections enables school heads and lay leaders to form harmonious, effective and trusting working relationships.
     
  Principles for Aspiring, New and Veteran Principals
There is no substitute for long-term professional experience. Bringing several decades of private and public school leadership to the fore, Academic Leadership Connections will provide an extensive collection of proactive guidelines for negotiating the difficult pathways of school leadership.
     
  Bridging the Gap – Strengthening the Home/School Connection
Recognizing the increasing complexities and pressures of the school/home connection, Academic Leadership Connections will help school professional and lay leaders improve their interactive processes and facilitate the development of a more mutually supportive and trusting relationship.
     
  Principal’s Handsbook
Managing Your Role, Time & Space – The demands of school leaders are ever increasing. Principals face the daily challenge of balancing the small stuff against the big picture. Academic Leadership Connections will provide practical, successful guidelines for managing, organizing and prioritizing the many tasks in the school leader’s day
     
  Creating a Caring Community
Don’t leave the heart and soul out of your mission. Let Academic Leadership Connections help you identify those principles and actions that lead to an environment in which all your constituents feel valued and appreciated.
     
  Troubleshooting
In the high stakes world of children’s education many difficulties arise that can test the working relationship of the school head and the trustees. Academic Leadership Connections will provide support and direction to help school leaders with the many, often emotionally charged and sensitive challenges that emerge from school governance.
 
 
 

PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
 
 
Curriculum & Instruction
The most essential element of a school’s success is the quality of its instructional program: What and how to teach. Drawing on extensive experience in the field, Academic Leadership Connections will guide and support the principal in effective curriculum development and supervision of instruction.
     
  Accreditation
School’s seeking to promote themselves as a quality educational institution benefit from participating in and completing a recognized accreditation process. Academic Leadership Connections will coordinate and guide all constituencies including the school’s leaders, professionals, lay leaders, parents and community through the entire accreditation process.
     
 
 

DISCIPLINE/PARENTING
 
 
Principled Discipline
Is a method of classroom discipline that trains teachers to empower children to make their own decisions for improving behavior based upon internalized principles rather than reliance on techniques that employ punishment or reward.
     
  Principled Parenting
Is a program that teaches parents to identify their family’s essential “principles” and impart them to their children, who will reflect upon these personalized guidelines as they evaluate and self-correct misbehavior.
     
  Pathways of Pleasantness
Guidelines for Positive Discipline – Academic Leadership Connections will train educators to avoid the pitfalls of punitive responses to misbehavior by providing them with a positive alternative that focuses on intrinsic correction rather than reliance on reward and punishment.
     
  Top Tips for Top-Notch Parenting
No one ever said it was going to be easy nor are parents warned that it will actually get more difficult over time. Yet, effective parenting provides the critical difference in successful child rearing. Let Academic Leadership Connections provide parents with the tools to raise confident and happy children at home and at school.
     
  "Seven Steps to Mentschhood"
Is a unique program of teaching behavior values and ethics to children that is based upon a child’s understanding of several precepts of the Torah. Academic Leadership Connections will teach educators and parents how share this program of self-discipline with their children.
 
 
 
Team
 
FAIGI FISCHMAN - PRESIDENT

Faigi Fischman has completed over two decades of effective, creative, and innovative instruction and administrative leadership. She has served as educational leader in various venues in both the public and private sectors.

Mrs. Fischman currently serves as adjunct instructor for the Mendheim Student Teaching Project of the Azrieli Graduate School of Yeshiva University. After having served as principal for eleven years in the Westwood Regional and Haworth School Districts she served as Director of Instruction and Parent Liaison at Torah Academy of Bergen County

where she successfully coordinated the schoolwide self-study resulting in accreditation by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges. She also served as director of the SINAI/Ma’ayanot program for developmentally disabled adolescent girls. Additionally, she continues to work as a consultant for curriculum and instruction for several Yeshivot and day schools.

Along with her husband Stanley who currently serves as the Director of General Studies at Ben Porat Yosef, the Sephardic Yeshiva of Bergen County, the Fischmans have launched Academic Leadership Connections, a consulting firm that guides lay and professional school leaders in developing greater harmony and unity of purpose. They have presented workshops, most recently, on “The Acquisition of Trust” which focuses on a response to the challenges educators face in maintaining positive relationships with parents and lay leaders.

Mrs. Fischman received her M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision at Kean College and her B.S. in Elementary Education at St. Peter’s College. She also completed her training in Jewish Education at Yeshiva University’s Teacher’s Institute.
   
STANLEY FISCHMAN - DIRECTOR
 
Currently the Director of General Studies at Ben Porat Yosef, the Sephardic Yeshiva of Bergen County, Mr. Stanley Fischman served as Principal and Head of Westchester Day School for over fifteen years. Previously he served as the Principal of the Jewish Foundation School of Staten Island. He is also an Adjunct Instructor in the Mendheim Student Teaching Project at the Azrieli Graduate School of Yeshiva University.

Mr. Fischman’s wife Faigi, a retired public school principal, has served in a variety of consulting positions in the Bergen County area. Together they have launched Academic Leadership Connections, a consulting firm that guides lay and professional school leaders in developing greater harmony and unity of purpose.

Mr. Fischman has lectured frequently on matters of discipline, school climate, parenting and child rearing. He recently introduced a new approach to discipline called PRINCIPLED DISCIPLINE and PRINCIPLED PARENTING which instructs educators and parents to discipline children as a reflection of their principles and values. His most recent project is entitled “The Acquisition of Trust” which focuses on a response to the challenges educators face in maintaining positive relationships with parents and lay leaders. He is the author of the soon to be published book – Seven Steps to Mentschhood.”

Mr. Fischman’s professional articles have been published in Machberet Haminahel, Ten Da’at Magazine, The Jewish Special Educator and Principal Magazine. He is a graduate of Yeshiva College and earned his Masters degree in Elementary Jewish Education from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration.
 
 
CONTACT
 
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP CONNECTIONS
655 Ogden Avenue
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Tel 201 836 0768
Fax 201 836 2454
info@academicleadership.net