"It doesn't deserve to be called a school at all" • The parents at 'Al Khaivar' in Haifa are threatening to shut down the school

There is no library, no internet infrastructure, no computer room, no indoor court - is this even a school?

The chairman of the parents' committee at the Al Khaiwar school, Richard Karam, is discouraged by the state of the school after more than ten years of struggle by the parents. According to him, the school has always been in a problematic situation, and the current mayor only adds to its poor maintenance and to the fact that the place does not deserve to be called a home at all A book, so he says.

After not receiving municipal development budgets, the parents at the school decided to seek relief from the court and as a last step they threaten that they will not send their children to school until a solution is found.

Today (Mon. 6/12/21) a letter was received from the municipality stating that on 22/01/22 there will be a discussion on the school's development budget and therefore the municipality expects the municipal parents' committee to cancel the appeal to the court.

The lawyer representing the parents replied that she is interested in all the details of the hearing, such as the expected period of time until the budget is received so that it can be used, and what the amount of the budget will be, etc. This is as a condition for the removal of the lawsuit. In addition, the letter arrived from the spokesperson of the municipality and the parents want to be sure that the head The mayor Einat Kalish Rotem and the director of the education department in the municipality Ilana Truk know about the things and it is with their consent.

Use the school now!

"For a decade and a half we have been fighting to enlarge the school, which is not even worthy of being called a school. We applied to the municipality to receive a budget for the development of the school. Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem told us to cooperate with her by getting rid of the legal matter, and we agreed. We told her that if we see progress, we will stop the legal matter. All we want from the municipality is a budget for the development of the school, which has not been the case in the last 15 years. But now Kalish Rotem has passed the ball to the Ministry of Education.

She wants to put us in the Exceptions Committee so that we get a budget. The entire budget from the Ministry of Education is a million and a half NIS. I told Klish Rotem, that a million and a half NIS is paid to the municipality of Haifa. I told her, 'Budget it yourself and after that you will wage war with the Ministry of Education.' Will we and our children sit and wait for a million and a half NIS? The mayor sent us the spokesperson for the Arab sector, Facher Bayadsi. He came to me and promised me that he would show me secret documents. A multi-year budget for 2022, which has 5 million NIS for the school. We want an immediate budget and not a multi-year one. I don't want a budget in a year, I want now for the municipality to use the school, which will be suitable for studies."

The struggle started in 2013

Al Haweir School is an urban elementary school, where Arab Muslim and Christian students study. The school is located on Caesarea Street, and the children arrive there by bus. The parents' struggle started back in 2013, the parents argued that the school needed to be renovated and expanded to the adjacent building. Over the years the parents managed to get a budget and local renovations were made, but to this day the school is too small to accommodate all the students. As mentioned, recently the parents discovered that the building next to the school, where they hoped the school would develop, is a building for conservation, which greatly complicates the renovation of the building.

It turns out that the building next door is intended for preservation

"We are a unique school, which combines music and regular studies. We suffered for years from water leaks during the rains. Last year, for six months, the music classes were shut down because of the leaks and they did not teach music at us. There is a building next to the school that we want to be used as an addition to the school. There is recognition from the municipality And we were promised promises. We decided that we could not rely on the municipality, so we turned to legal authorities. Einat wanted to meet with us and there was a meeting and they promised to help us. They would allocate a budget for the expansion of the school. After a few months, a new thing emerged that the municipality did not bother to tell us, that the additional building is intended for preservation. Find more An excuse, another obstacle that cannot be overcome. The Ministry of Education does not budget for buildings for preservation. We passed the preservation committee and there was a budget that the previous treasurer Jackie Vakim gave us and suddenly everything stopped."

240 children are sitting in classes in the rain

"We don't have a field if it rains, 240 children without a covered field. They stay in the classrooms, it causes overcrowding and violence. The entire building needs to be renovated. Suddenly the consultant of the municipality came and said to me, 'Give me a month and there will be a development budget,' I told him - why wait ? You will pass a budget, and we will run after you. We intend to shut down the school and then the municipality will give explanations for its conduct. I do not understand why there is a budget from the time of the previous mayor Yona Yahav and they do not allow it to be used."

Children in the 5th grade sat in the chairs of the 1st grade

"The school doesn't have a library or a computer room, the classrooms don't meet the standard. We even fought over the chairs and tables. Children in the fifth grade were sitting in the chairs of the first grade. I don't understand this opacity when it comes to 240 children and they lack so much. We want That our children will have what children in every other school have. We do not have internet infrastructure, there are not enough computers. What is going on here? What are we asking for? We are also residents of Haifa, we also pay property taxes and taxes.

"The mayor hasn't done anything for the Arab sector since she was elected," says Karam, "We are already in despair, every time they send us someone else to talk to us and in the end they lie to us. Our lawyer Samer has also given up already. It is impossible to even get information from the municipality. We have reached a final decision, we are shutting down the school after the holidays in January."