The Temple has announced that Alison Roemer, director of The Temple Trager Early Childhood Education Center, will assume additional responsibilities as the director of the congregation’s Religious School and Hebrew. Her new title is director of education.
Roemer has worked at the preschool for eight years, and has been director for two and a half years.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Miami of Ohio and her masters in education from the University of Tennessee. Prior to coming to The Temple she worked in kindergarten through fifth grade in the public schools.
A Louisville native, Roemer and her husband, Douglas Roemer, returned to Louisville when their son, Kyle, was 4 and their daughter, Katy, was 2. Kyle, now in the seventh grade, recently celebrated his bar mitzvah; and Katy is in the fifth grade.
Both children grew up at The Temple, and Roemer credits her predecessor, Joyce Eisman with doing “a fabulous job. Her programming is excellent, and the curriculum is excellent,” Roemer said, “so I feel very lucky that I’m stepping into a program that’s very well developed and the rabbis are very supportive of the program.”
The school uses the Chai curriculum, Roemer explained, “so I’m going to continue with that, certainly for the short term. Then we’ll see if there are changes or enhancements that need to be made down the road.
“I feel very comfortable with what’s in place,” she continued, “and am excited to talk with the teachers, parents and students.” She’s looking forward to getting to know students and families she has not worked with before and reconnecting with those who were part of the preschool program.
Currently, about 165 children are enrolled in The Temple’s Religious School.
Roemer expressed appreciation for the subsidy each student receives from the Annual Federation Campaign and for a grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence that provides additional scholarship assistance for families that cannot afford full tuition.
