About the project
The Denmark Comprehensive School began as a secular, public junior and senior high school in the Katamon Dalet neighborhood that providing academic and vocational studies. The Jerusalem Foundation has supported several projects at the school over the years, beginning with the creation of the school’s first computer laboratory in 1983. The Foundation later supported improvements to the lab and dedicated it as the Edelstein Computer Laboratory. The Foundation supported creation of the Center for Technological Studies in 1989.
After many years, the school was on the brink of closure due to lack of enrolment when is was decided to change the focus of the school and to invest heavily in the school’s recovery and institute policies to focus on the growing number of students who are “in between.”
The Denmark School has since become a citywide magnet school, absorbing students with severe difficulties who have fallen out of or been expelled from other educational frameworks in Jerusalem, but who are seen as having the potential, with significant investment, to complete a 12-year high school diploma or even achieve partial success at matriculation and continue their education further. As a result, the school population has now stabilized at some 320 students enrolled in the 9th to 12th grades (special education continues beyond the 12th grade) and school dropout rates have significantly declined. The Denmark School has also recently seen a drastic rise in the number of students taking matriculation exams, something that only few of these students experienced in the past.
Within its restructured framework and strategy, the school has captured not only the interest of the Jerusalem Municipality and Minister of Education, but also a group of leading Israeli businessmen headed by high-tech entrepreneur Dr. Yossi Vardi, who are leading the effort to bring local private investment in the school in partnership with the Jerusalem Foundation and friends around the world.
