Four days after starting its stage as a public center after avoiding its closure, the center does not have a dining room or accessible toilets for children from 3 to 6 years old
In August, Educació reported that there were serious architectural problems and that Infantile had to relocate in the space that until now had been occupied by Secondary
When there are four days left before the start of the school year, the old concerted school Cultural Academy of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat -now, Maria Miret School Institute– The facilities for Early Childhood Education students are not adapted.
The plan to save the school and locate all the children was defined in May, but this summer the Department of Education communicated to teachers and families that P-3, P-4 and P5- they must be relocated to the old Secondary classrooms, located in the historic building.
With less than a week to go until September 5, they don’t have dining room or accessible toilets for children from 3 to 6 years. The educational community works against the clock to finish all the facilities of the new stage as a public center.
This week, teachers and families have turned to preparing the barracks where the Ernest Lluch School, which will become the new Instituto Escola Maria Miret and will house all the students of the Academia Cultura. Parents, teachers, management and administrators are unloading furniture and school supplies together with a municipal brigade.
A provisional measure for “security reasons”
In the plan agreed with the education to guarantee the continuity of the school, it was planned to transfer the Primary and Secondary students to the modules of the old Ernest Lluch, while the Infant classrooms were provisionally kept in the same building where they were -located in front of the historic building of the Academy Culture-. In August, Educació informed them that there were serious architectural problems and that Infantile had to relocate in the space that until now had been occupied by Secondary.
Apart from moving the material from P3, P4 and P5, the change of building also involves adapting the facilities, since the farm where the little ones now go has a long flight of stairs to access the classrooms, it does not have urinals suitable for children from 3 to 6 years old or dining room. This Wednesday, the company responsible for the Lunch service I visited the facilities to study how to enable a space to serve meals.
From the City Council of L’Hospitalet they point out that the Department and the consistory have agreed on this transfer “for security reasons” and they emphasize that it is a “provisional” measure while the prefabricated modules that will be located near the barracks where the rest of the students now go are not available. The change of building for the little ones has caught the educational community off guard, that this week he planned to dedicate efforts to adapt the Primary and Secondary barracks, but he did not count on that added transfer.
Families, “very happy” despite everything
The movement due to the relocation of the three Early Childhood Education courses contrasts, however, with the “delusion” that families show before the new stage as a public center. “We had everything against us to save the school, but now we are very happy”, summarizes the vice president of the AFA (Association of Families of Students), Ela Colomer, who recalls that the path to guarantee the continuity of the center “has been very complicated”.
Colomer stresses that families are “very happy” both for its continuity and for its new stage as a public center. “We have new material, a laboratory, a robotics classroom… and several things that we could not aspire to before,” he says, referring to the trajectory they have had until now as a concerted center owned by the Bishopric of Barcelona.
At the same time, from the AFA they highlight the importance of guaranteeing a new future for the school in a neighborhood, the torressa, with a high population density. “We have experienced a lot of anguish and suffering because, if they closed the Acadèmia Cultura, many families were left on the street”, point. According to the FAA, 90% of the 365 students from the previous course will continue in the new center. Those who do not do so are families who, given the uncertainty of the closure, chose to secure a place in other schools in the city.
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With the start of the academic year just around the corner, the association that brings together the families feels that it has “made history” having managed to keep the school open as public centerwith all the students together and also the teaching team.
The next step, they emphasize, will be to obtain a building that will allow them to leave the barracks that they will occupy now. As long as this milestone does not arrive, they will ask Educació to change the name Institut Escola Maria Miret for the Nova Cultura. “We want to pay tribute to all the years of history that we have behind us,” says the AFA.