Two years ago, the Beit Shemesh municipality announced that it would open a new anthroposophic preschool, where children would learn through their senses and connect to nature and to the world through various creative activities.
These activities would include art, physical movement and activity, and various crafts, and the preschool would feed into the city's new Gesher school.
The preschool initially opened near the Levin school, and in its second year, already had 35 children who were beginning the four-year-old class.
But it soon became clear that the city was not as dedicated to the children as their parents had hoped: The children were placed in bomb shelter which had been turned into a preschool and which suffered from repeated plumbing and bug problems.
The preschool's yard, which serves 60 children, is small and has only one piece of climbing equipment. Flooding was frequent during the winter, and there was a lack of proper drainage. The entry gate does not close on its own, the tiles are crooked and broken, and there are several other issues as well.
As a result, the preschool teachers are unwilling to continue working at the site after the end of this school year.
The children's parents, meanwhile, said that they have turned several times to the Beit Shemesh municipality, requesting that the safety issues be immediately fixed. But according to them, the municipality ignores the danger to the children, despite the repeated warnings.
Meanwhile, there has been no information or answers provided regarding next year - whether with regards to where the children are registered, nor with regards to whether the issues at Gan Gesher will be fixed prior to the start of the new school year.
A representative for the Beit Shemesh municipality told Israel National News - Arutz Sheva, "I don't understand how you could say such a thing. There were never fleas in this preschool. This is the worst kind of slander."
The representative added that she "is in contact with representatives of the parents and even scheduled a meeting to prepare for next year, with all of the preschools' staffs. By the way, I am opening another anthroposophic preschool."
"There were mosquitos in the yards of the preschool. We brought a company which cleaned all of the grass and the thorns that were around, we did pest extermination several times in order to kill all the mosquitos.
"We switched all of the sandboxes for clean sand.
"I don't understand where they are getting these imaginations that there is still something there from."