Summer 2023 and 1st
Term 2023 2024 News
The typical summer program
in JLSS is maintenance, summer school, and registration.
The central heating pipes of the building housing Boys Boarding Homes 5,
6, and 7 are old and rusted. They caused major leaks in BBH 7 last winter.
They are long overdue for replacement.
We decided to replace them in stages in order not to have a major impact
on our finances.
As the pipes of BBH 7 were the most damaged and leaking, we began by
replacing them.
The job was completed in September 2023. We still have to replace the
pipes of BBH 6 and 5 hopefully during the Christmas and Easter holidays
this year.
Our regular summer school program for underperforming children of the
boarding department was held from 11 till 22 September.
This program is sponsored by our Swiss partners SVS year after year.
Previous summer programs emphasized teaching English in addition to
other fun activities.
We recently realized that some of our boarding children are also facing
difficulties with Arabic.
We decided to include supporting children in Arabic in addition to
English. This aims at helping them improve their performance to catch
up with their classmates.
Our evaluation at the end of the program revealed that children were
able to improve their level in Arabic much faster than English. This
probably is related to their mother-tongue being Arabic, but it was an
interesting observation nevertheless.
We express our sincere gratitude to our Swiss partners SVS for
sponsoring summer school programs year after year in addition to
supporting other projects and our regular budget.
Grade 9, as usual, started earlier than other classes on 18 September. The
aim is to give them a head-start as they have to sit for official exams
at the end of the year.
As for registration, very early in September all places in the boarding
department were already taken.
We had no plans for expanding the boarding department, but the
applications of new students kept coming reaching unprecedented numbers.
It was obvious that the economic crisis in Lebanon had a huge impact on
people.
Parents or relatives of underprivileged children were persistently asking
us to take more students.
We immediately started work on one of the flats in the farm complex to
make it suitable for accommodating more vocational students.
We installed new facilities and new double glazed aluminum windows. We
also had to equip the flat with central heating for winter. All the
necessary repair and paint work was done, and finally we furnished the
flat to
make it a typical Schneller boarding home.
The fact that we had a spare boiler and burner reduced the cost
enormously.
The spare boiler and burner were the result of the EVS energy project
conducted by Mr. Rolf Bartel who helped us modernize our energy systems.
Solar panels were utilized to improve heating efficiency using less
boilers and burners. The end result was a huge reduction in diesel bills in addition to
having a spare boiler and a few spare burners.
Boys Boarding Home 8 was finally ready, and we could receive 14 more
boys.
We didn't expect to receive so many application for girls wanting to join
JLSS.
The last few years one of the girls' boarding homes was closed because
we didn't have enough applications.
Our nice and spacious guesthouse is closed during the school year because
child-protection rules do not allow guests when children are at school.
With so many applications for girls wanting to join JLSS it was not
right to keep that place closed when we can use part of it as a boarding
home for girls.
Minor modifications could turn the South side into a nice boarding home,
luxurious no doubt but a boarding home nevertheless.
Girls look after places they live in to an impeccable standard. When
rooms are needed in summer they can still be used for guests. Only two
rooms will be lost: one for an entrance to the boarding home from the
side of the church after constructing a stairway, and the other for a
dining hall for the girls. A small kitchenette could be constructed in a
small service area adjacent to the dining hall.
The decision imposed itself. The argument was settled. Half of the
guesthouse was transformed into Girls Boarding Home 4 to accommodate 12
additional girls and two educators.
A metal stairway was constructed. Safety rails were added to the
balconies. The kitchenette was built. Our carpentry and
industrial mechanics trainers built the tables for the dining hall. In no time
GBH 4 was ready to receive the additional girls that will be admitted to
JLSS.
One previously lost area to the boarding department was finally
reclaimed, amazingly to the original plan that JLSS was originally built.
Parents of day students were worried. Other private schools adopted very
high school fees mostly in US Dollars. The parents committee was in
communication with the administration explaining the dire situation the
people of the JLSS region are in. The facts presented themselves. There
was no argument about that reality.
JLSS agreed to keep its nominal fees for day students with no charges in
US Dollars for one more year also subsidizing 50% of the cost of
expensive textbooks.
Thanks to LBMS (Lutheran Board for Mission Support) students were lent
the expensive science and chemistry books for the intermediate level
totally free of charge. The books remain the property of the school to
be used year after year. Only students who damage the books will have to
pay for them.
We express our sincere gratitude to LBMS for this grant and their other
kind support of our school.
With another grant from EVS totaling Euro 15,000 JLSS was equipped with
all the sports equipment that it needed to make its playgrounds and gym
of the highest standard for sports training. The boarding department was
also provided with the necessary sports equipment from that grant.
SVS/EMS are the supporting body of our school. Without the regular
grants we receive from them JLSS cannot run its programs. Furthermore,
since the economic crisis in 2019 and the loss of all our local income,
JLSS was solely operating on the funds that it receives from EVS/EMS.
Their support is not restricted to providing the funds necessary for
operating the school but also extends to improving and modernizing its
programs. The last two hangar projects were the latest examples that
completely transformed the vocational program and brought training to
the highest standard in most modern and well equipped workshops.
The Württemberg Church (Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg) having
been the main supporter of
the second hangar
project for electricity workshops, also recently kindly sent us an
additional grant of Euro 24,800 to help us purchase the remaining
training equipment we need to launch the electric cars program which we
hope to start before the end of this academic year.
Our gratitude to EVS/EMS and the Württemberg Church is beyond what words
can express. Our staff, students, parents/relatives, and the JLSS
parents' committee express their highest appreciation to our German
partners for this most wonderful institution that is the greatest
blessing in our land.
The Rotary Club Bietigheim-Vaihingen also kindly sent us Euro 400 for
the electric cars training equipment. We also thank them for this grant.
RC Beirut Cosmopolitan with other
Rotary clubs that
supported our photovoltaic project also lately sent the necessary
funds to equip JLSS with the specialized cleaning equipment for
photovoltaic panels. This equipment is not only important for the
maintenance of our panels but will also be used to complement the
photovoltaic training our students receive. It will now include this
important aspect of maintenance. We thank all the participating clubs
and the Rotary Foundation for this grant and for their kind and
continued support.
We praise God for having all our wonderful partners.
The total number of students jumped from 263 students last year to
331 this year.
Boarding students increased from 124 to 171, day students form 172 to
210, and vocational students from 91 to 121.
School started on the 2nd of October 2023.
We pray for a fruitful and peaceful academic year.