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Jan 11, 2015

RBS school saga coming to an end

So, it looks like the long-running saga of the 2 schools in RBS A has come to an end..

Iryat Bet Shemesh has announced that the City and the Ministry of Education have come to an agreement by which the Safot vTarbuyot school will be moved to Old Bet Shemesh and merged with another school and have a building refurbished to their needs, while the Mishkenot Daas school will move into the vacated building in RBS A.

The Iryah is also being pressured by the MoE to shut down some of the smaller schools in town that have suffered from dwindling registration in recent years, or to merge them with other similar schools.

According to Kikar, Mishkenos will move into the building with 900 students. Safot will move out with 144.

I think it is a good move, especially coming with an agreement and not like thieves in the night.

What is left unsaid is:
1. is this building large enough to hold the entire Mishkenos? can it really hold 900 kids? what about future growth?
2. what happens to the plot of land that was allocated years ago to Mishkenos? Will it be reallocated now for other schools? does it make a difference if the Iryah will never move the caravans off it?
3. Was the issue of under-utilized plots held by Haredi schools (or other schools) that moved off the plots and found ways to hold on to them to collect rent or just hold control ever looked into? Will the city move other needy schools into those plots?
4. What will happen to the building and caravans Mishkenos Daas is currently in? Schools should start lining up requesting it. I would suggest they populate with a school that is currently in caravans on some plot, get those caravans off and start building, eventually moving a school into a building, and thereby start a cycle of removing caravans and building buildings.

Late development:
According to a report on Shemeshnet, this might not be happening so quickly.. the Parents Committee of the Safot school issued a statement saying that they are not leaving so quickly and parents should wait for further developments. They said the school will continue operating in its current location until further notice. They said that the complex suggested by Iryat Bet Shemesh was inadequate, and considering the poor financial situation the City finds itself in, they might not be able to refurbish the building.

In my opinion, this has been such a major priority for the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, that he will find the money for this even if it means taking it from other budgets.







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3 comments:

  1. This is a great move, and renovating the school asap should be in the mayor's interest - but I think we'll all believe it when we see it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is no real issue with future growth. The school already has three parallel classes for each grade, and does not plan to have any more than that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Apparently this move will save the muni appx 500k a year on transportation for the safot kids from old Beit Shemesh to Rama alef. That should help with the refurb. At this point the safot are not agreeing because they want to Jon up with another small schoo but MoE said no to that...

    ReplyDelete

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