Protest on the Biblebelt against the arrival of a new Reformed primary school: it can hardly be imagined. Nevertheless, the Veluwe village of Otterlo has been opposed to the intention of the municipality of Ede for more than a month to temporarily accommodate a strict -believer school from Kootwijkerbroek in the public primary school, the only school in Otterlo. From next school year, the Reformed Rehobothschool would use three classrooms: two in the Ericaschool, one in the well -attended Village House De Aanloop, which borders on the small schoolyard in the village center.
But the Reformed School does not fit there, many Otterloërs think. Both in terms of space and culture. The village feels overwhelmed by the proposal, residents say they were not involved in decision -making. Shortly after the announcement, the Otterlo’s interest interest group started a petition against the plan. This was signed more than a thousand times in a week – in a village with more than two thousand inhabitants and about nine hundred households.
The two schools may have to share their school building and square in Otterlo for up to eleven years
Evert Groeneveld, chairman of Otterlo’s Interest, finds the plan of the municipality ‘incomprehensible’. The most important thing is, according to the chairman, that the quality of education at the Ericaschool is not at stake when classes are merged, to offer the students of the Rehobothschool. The Ericaschool must also be able to grow itself, says Otterlo’s interest.
According to Groeneveld, road safety also plays a role. The village center of Otterlo is already ‘extremely busy’ by the flow of tourists visiting the Veluwe, he says. “If we are going to add a new Basschool, it puts even more pressure on road safety. That is just asking for misery.”
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Identity
Moreover, identity is a sensitive and important factor. Otterlo is different from the strict Christian neighboring villages, says Willy, who has been living here for 43 years. Her children and grandchildren went to the Ericaschool, “the last of eleven” is in group eight. Her village is liberal and progressive, says Willy. In contrast to the Reformed villages, Sinterklaas is celebrated here and the LGBTI community is respected, says Willy. “Not everyone here is religious or Reformed. I am a Catholic myself.”
As well as other Otterloërs who NRC Spoke, Willy does not want to share her last name. Residents do not want to blow the dispute further or express themselves negatively about their reformational neighbors.
A mother of a girl in group five on the Ericaschool only wants to tell anonymously (“I am in the parent council”) that she finds the lifestyles of the two schools “very far” apart. Carefully she says she does not feel comfortable with the Reformed culture at the Rehobothschool. The fact that children from reformational circles are generally not vaccinated, she finds ‘exciting’, but also the right of those parents. It is difficult for both groups to imagine how to live so close together, she thinks.
The public primary school of Otterlo receives the Reformational Rehobothschool as a neighbor.
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
Grow
Since the opening in 2014, the Rehobothschool has grown so fast that it has already built five emergency rooms. This school year she started with 687 children. The temporary location in Otterlo should at least take care of 120 students in the long term.
Since 2018, the school has been looking for a location for students from the Edese villages Wekerom and De Valk, both about a ten -minute drive from Otterlo. “The municipality of Barneveld is growing fast, so schools too,” says director Bart Paanstra. Newcomers logically look for a school close to home, but also one that respects “the triangle between church, school and family”. So that students at home, in the church and at school largely learn the same things, he adds.
The Rehobothschool is also concerned about sharing the school in Otterlo, says Paanstra. “Put us in a meadow with emergency rooms, then you are no one to be bothered.” In vain, the school itself suggested locations at the municipality, such as an vacant supermarket in Wekerom and an abandoned church in Harskamp. The municipality then suggested a school building in Ederveen. That was not feasible, says Paanstra. Especially the distance to the children’s places – about sixteen kilometers from Wekerom and the Valk – was too large.
Those parents are free to choose whether they are vaccinating their children, that also applies to our parents
There are now around 140 students on the Erica School, a stable number. In Otterlo, on the outskirts of the Veluwe, there has been little new construction in the last twenty years. There are now finally some new houses and soon a new village house. As soon as the Ericaschool itself grows fast, she gets those classrooms “just back,” emphasizes Bram van der Beek, alderman of the municipality of Ede (ChristenUnie, Education). But the Rehobothschool just grows faster than the Ericaschool, he knows, because the birth rates within the Reformed community are higher than in other places.
The students of the two schools may have to share their school building and square in Otterlo for up to eleven years. Groeneveld van Otterlo’s interest is unhappy about this and calls that period “rather semi-permanent”. Paanstra understands those worries. He would prefer to see his own school building as quickly as possible, but the construction could just take five or six years, he says.
Minister
The municipality of Ede prefers not to receive a new reformational school at all, but it is no longer in control: since the law more room for new schools (2021), the Minister of Education, Culture and Science has decided which new schools may be opened. If a school can prove that parents are interested and that sufficient students will register, every municipality is obliged to accommodate the new school according to that law.
In April 2024, then outgoing minister Robbert Dijkraaf (D66, Education, Culture and Science) approved the application. After the commitment, the municipality had found a building for a year so that the school could open in August 2025. That didn’t work. The process may be postponed once, a year, what happened.
The other school is entitled to housing. I would say: a nice lesson lesson
After research, the municipality concluded this summer that the Ericaschool in Otterlo even has too much room for the number of students. Other classrooms are used as a library and childcare. The school has no right to that extra space, the municipality says: the Ericaschool must therefore arrange. From August 2026 the Rehobothschool in Otterlo could start.
The Reformed Rehobothschool has the full law to found a new school, also “in the area of the neighbors,” says Renée van Schoonhoven, professor of educational law at the VU University of Amsterdam. “If many parents were to live in Otterlo who would like to found a liberal or anthroposophical school, it would have been possible.”
In the coming years, Van Schoonhoven also expects this kind of conflict of interest in other municipalities, since the minister stipulates that schools have the right to start. In other cases, such as the Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam, for example, it was about new Islamic schools. Despite protest, the municipality could not change anything there either. But religion is not always the stones of offense. “In this case it is about public and reformed.”
‘Citizenship’
Although they have to teach together under one roof, they remain two separate schools, with two separate school boards, which can make mutual agreements, Alderman Van der Beek emphasizes. They will be about ‘(co) use [van de schoolfaciliteiten]activities in the village hall and childcare, but also about how the schools can co -exist in one building ”.
Paanstra: “It should not be that we will determine what the Ericaschool should or should not do. Or vice versa. But we have to make good agreements.” About the vaccination rate, for example, he says: “Those parents are free to choose whether they are vaccinating their children, that also applies to our parents.”
Aukje van Hijum, director of Proominent, the school umbrella organization to which the Ericaschool belongs, confirms that discussions run between the Rehobothschool and the municipality. She hopes that the objections of the umbrella organization ‘will be taken seriously’. The educational quality and development opportunities of the Ericaschool and the safety of students should not come under pressure, she says. A final decision will be made in December.
Existing schools simply find it uncomfortable when new players appear on the scene, he knows professor Van Schoonhoven. Of course she understands that schools “want to stay in their spacious jacket.” “But the other school is also entitled to housing. I would say: a nice lesson of citizenship. Make children clear that you can indeed go to school together.”
The Reformed Rehobothschool in Kootwijkerbroek.
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
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