The new building of public primary school De Hekakker in Norg is best built on the current location of the school.
That is the outcome of the location investigation that was shared on Tuesday evening with parents of school-going children and interested local residents. The current location on Schoolstraat in the center of the village is the best, partly because of the facilities already present.
“A number of locations have been viewed, including in the Brinkhof and on the Brinkhof meadow. For example, there is no capacity on the energy network at the latter location. It will be years before it’s your turn,” says Han Sijbring, director of OPON, the umbrella school foundation in Noordenveld. The meeting was attended by around 120 interested parties, who, according to Sijbring, responded mostly positively to the outcome of the study.
New construction desired
Sharing the preferred location for the new school to be built is the first step towards the eagerly desired new building. Talks will follow in the near future with local residents and Belangenvereniging Norg. Years ago there were plans to move both the primary and secondary school in the village to the former town hall De Brinkhof. That was investigated and shot at the time.
Critical questions were again asked about this during the meeting, says Sijbring. It will be discussed in follow-up talks with local residents and village interests. After these parties have given their input, the municipal council determines the final new construction location. Sijbring hopes that this will happen before the summer. After that, an architect can be engaged for the design of the new building.
Grow
Sijbring does not dare to make any statements about the further timeline. “We depend on all kinds of external procedures. Everything is coming to an end in the current building. At the moment there is leakage when it rains profusely and some rooms can no longer be heated with the old installation. We can wait it out for a while, but it is nice if we have the prospect of new construction.”
The school is also growing, partly due to young families settling in the Oosterveld new housing estate. Where the old building is designed for two hundred students, the new building can accommodate fifty additional students.
In the school housing plan of the municipality of Noordenveld, joint new construction for De Hekakker and obs De Elsakker in nearby Westervelde is mentioned as an option. According to Sijbring, that is not the case for the time being. “The Elsakker continues independently. Although, of course, we always remain dependent on student numbers.”