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NEWS
Classroom Construction Projects Set to Begin in
Jerusalem
By Betzalel Kahn
The Jerusalem Municipality is set to begin construction on
dozens of classrooms at a total cost of NIS 20 million ($4.4
million). The initiative was made possible through Mayor
Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky's efforts to arrange funding.
Following approval to transfer the funding from the Education
Ministry the municipality recently began preparing to issue a
building tender. In the first phase emphasis will be placed
on Neveh Yaakov, a mostly secular neighborhoods within it
that recently absorbed numerous chareidi families. In order
to provide for the needs of the neighborhood's new students,
the municipality has allocated extensive space for the
construction of new institutions of nearly 1,000 square
meters each — 16 classrooms for a Beis Yaakov school,
18 classrooms for a talmud Torah and four classrooms
for a boys' kindergarten.
The Mayor said the construction of new facilities follows
extensive renovation work the Department for Chareidi
Education arranged in the past year and a substantial added
budget this year to renovate and equip chareidi institutions.
The Department for Chareidi Education will earmark NIS 4
million ($880,000) for projects designed to improve safety
standards at educational facilities, along with another NIS
11 million ($2.4 million) and NIS 2 million ($440,000) to
bring in temporary structures at talmudei Torah. In
addition to classrooms to be built using funds from the
annual budget, next year the municipality also plans to build
dozens more classrooms around the city.
Deputy Mayor in charge of chareidi education, Rabbi Uri
Maklev, said that a municipal planning team is hard at work
preparing a comprehensive master plan to set out the
municipality's vision to provide facilities for the chareidi
education system. All of the needs of the educational
institutions were mapped out to prepare a detailed plan,
including converting existing structures into educational
facilities as well as executing new construction.
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