Brown Iris and One Fish, Jew Fish. For the first time in Maimonides history, in the 2008 Battle of the Bands, a 7th grade band ("Etai and the Others") won, beating four other bands including Brown Iris. Color War and Maccabia Color War Color War takes place annually in the Elementary School. Teams are led by 5th grade captains, who coordinate the action as their teammates compose songs and cheers, make a poster, write a D'var Torah, perform skits and motivate their teammates to win. Maccabia The Maccabia is a series of sporting events that takes place every few years in grades seven through twelve. Generally organized by the Student Council, it is led by two captains from each class. Upper school Maccabia took place in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Controversies Finances and governance In late 2005, the school faced mounting budget deficits. To help alleviate the deficit, the School's Board of Directors initiated cost-cutting, layoffs, and an extraordinary fund-raising effort. The school successfully balanced its budget for 2006–07 and seemed to have achieved that with which most Jewish Day Schools continually struggle—correcting financial course without severely damaging enrollment or the quality of its education. At the same time, the school's governance structure changed. Formerly managed by a 7-member school committee, the school was now governed by a new board and a new board chair, Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz. The school committee became much smaller (3 members) and supervised only one person, the school's Rosh Yeshiva. After the cost-cutting measures, the school was sued for age and gender discrimination by three of the laid-off teachers. On July 3, 2009, The Jewish Advocate reported on the outcome of the Deborah Onie case: "The court found, however, that the reason the school gave for not renewing the contract was non-discriminatory, as it related only to her refusal to accept the authority of [principals] Klammer and Posner. In 2005, Onie brought the allegation of age discrimination to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the state's chief civil rights agency, which was unable to conclude that there was a violation of statutes." The Evelyn Berman and Phyllis Schwartz cases were settled out of court. According to varying news reports, the private Maurice Saval trust, whose sole beneficiary is the school, lost between three and eight million dollars due to the Bernard Madoff scandal. In