Back to School (6 October 2008)

The start of the new academic year 2008/2009 was delayed until after Eed al-Fitr holidays. Children and students returned to school on Monday morning 6 October 2008.
The first week for children of the Kindergarten classes was only until twelve noon giving the children a period of adjustment to school life. Other classes started with regular hours.
Boarding students returned on Sunday 5 October in the afternoon.
Our new policy of separating children from cars on the school premises for safety was started from the first day. The parking area was fenced completely in order to prevent children and students from entering the area. Students of Grades 6 to 9 enter the school from gate number 1. Cars are no more allowed to enter from gate number 1 and students are totally safe from cars inside the gate. Parents can drive Children of the Kindergarten classes till Grade 6 into the parking area through gate number 2. They drive on a specified route to a new small gate where they stop and walk their children to safety. Vocational students enter the school from gate number 3. Bus drivers that do not observe safety regulations or who have none JLSS students in their buses are not allowed into the parking area and are required to drive children to gate number 1. Teachers who want to park their cars inside the school's parking area are required to arrive to school ten minutes before students start arriving and to leave school five minutes after children leave school. A new delivery road was paved for vehicles bringing goods to the kitchen or the bakery. It reaches both the kitchen and the bakery through gate number 3 avoiding passage through gate number 1 which was the usual delivery route. All those are safety measures that are intended to protect children and students from any harm that can be caused by moving vehicles inside children's play areas. Cars and vehicles are no more allowed into those areas.
The school faces many challenges this year. The toughest of the them is the new raise in salaries which was approved by the government. This high cost of living increase in salaries, although very much justified and long time overdue, has set us back financially and our deficit increased enormously. The bad economic situation in Lebanon is also forcing many parents to move their children from private schools to government schools. Another challenge for us this year was the drop in student numbers of the day school as a consequence of the economic crisis.
We hope and pray that this year will be peaceful and that the political situation in Lebanon will allow children to have a normal and happy school year.