The new school year begins amidst feelings both happy and sad.

On September 1, despite the tragic fire that took place at The School for Peace in the early hours of the same day, the school opened for the year as scheduled. The children, families and staff were very excited to start the school year.

This school year, we had planned to open two classes, in accordance with our five year plan for the School’s growth. However, due to the Coronavirus crisis and anxiety concerning the pandemic’s second wave, the families of ten Jewish children who were enrolled for first grade pulled them out at the last moment, leaving just 11 Jewish children and 33 Arab children

As a result, School Principal Carmella Ferber had to decide how to address the change in numbers. After numerous meetings with parents of new and enrolled children, the Educational Association board, the Ministry of Education and the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, Carmella made the decision to open just one class and to cancel the placements of 13 new Arab children. Her selection was made to accord with the provision that the School is legally obliged to accept children within the catchment area of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, yet is entitled to exclude children from outside the Council area.

This decision was unsupported by the village or the Association board. We are very distressed by the outcome. The Board and the village community is trying to do everything in its power to rectify it and assist these families.

We have petitioned the Education Ministry Regional Council to reverse the decision and are supporting a legal challenge brought by one of the families against the Education Ministry and the Regional Council to accept their child to the school.

The crisis demonstrates that the community has less influence over policies made by the Primary School than we thought we had. Yet we haven’t given up. We hope that a fair solution for these families can be found and that they will eventually be able to learn in our bilingual binational school.

On a positive note, the school management succeeded in scheduling a full week of classes in school, despite the restrictions of the Coronavirus crisis. In most most primary schools, the school week for 4th-6th grade level children is being shortened to only three days of on-site learning.

Students learning at our school are receiving 30 hours of schooling instead of 24 hours in the regular school system.

We are continuing with the extra-curricular subjects that we have developed over the years.

We are taking advantage of every corner of the school campus in order to work according to the regulations of the Ministry of Health to teach in smaller class sizes. As such, we are renovating a number of small buildings and installing air conditioning where needed in order to ensure their suitability as classrooms.

We will keep you updated.