Summer 2023 and 1^st 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.