The construction of Gesterby school centre must finally be approved — every extra year in temporary premises costs the municipality around €0.5 million and does nothing good for the pupils’ situation. The school centre has been in various stages of investigation and planning in its current form for 6 years already . In 2017, the service production sub-committee noted that buildings B, C, D and E of the school centre needed to be demolished, and building A was declared in need of demolition in 2018. Temporary prefab buildings have served as temporary premises for the school centre since 2017 . These temporary buildings cost around €0.5 million per year , meaning the cumulative cost is already in the millions, and construction of a new school has not even been approved by the municipal board yet. The municipality estimates that building the new Gesterby school centre together with a joint campus for Porkkala upper secondary school and Kyrkslätts gymnasium will take 4–5 years . On 10 May 2021 , the municipal board again sent the project plan back to the drawing board due to insufficient studies.
Why has the project been stuck for six years?
The reasons given for returning it are not convincing, however, and they do not help the pupils or staff at the schools, let alone the municipality’s attractiveness as a place to live. Every year in which construction of new buildings has not begun costs the municipality a great deal. The municipality’s population growth is surely also affected by whether it has safe and healthy schools for children.
As the owner of the premises and the employer of the staff, the municipality also has an obligation to provide adequate and healthy facilities for pupils and staff. How would the matter be treated if it were a company planning new office premises for years on end?
What if we moved from words to action?
Many members of the municipal board have written to Kirkkonummen Sanomat saying that Gesterby school centre must be built or that other schools are also in the queue and must not be forgotten. Yet the last time the school centre project was sent back for preparation, it came down to a single vote. If just one more municipal board member voted in favour of the school centre, it could be moved forward. What if we moved from words to action and approved the construction of the new school centre?
Let’s keep Kirkkonummi a family-friendly municipality and make sure our schools are healthy!
I have written more about education: about why education is the municipality’s most important task , about the government’s education cuts and about the state’s pressure on municipal finances . Read more in my posts on education .
Published in Kirkkonummen Sanomat on 20 May 2021.
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