Middle school students from the community of Weyarn will be enrolled in Holzkirchen in the future - even if they live much closer to Miesbach. The parents are upset. The community is looking for a solution.
Weyarn
- It's five kilometers from Kleinpienzenau to Miesbach, about 15 kilometers to Holzkirchen. Nevertheless, middle school students from Pienzenau should travel to the market town in the future. The reason is the division of school districts. There is a great lack of understanding among parents - and also among the local councils, who discussed the new regulations at their most recent meeting and were looking for a solution.
The notice from the Miesbach State School Board was only posted in the community on the day of the meeting. As Mayor Leonhard Wöhr (CSU) informed, children who will be enrolled in middle school in the coming school year 2024/25 should attend the Holzkirchen facility. The lack of understanding is particularly great because parents have a free choice of schools for their children when it comes to secondary school and high school. “But not for middle school,” said Wöhr.
The school authority did not question the decision and asked the community to support it. But their request looks different, because the parents are very excited. Albert Zinsbacher (CSU) reported that he received the first call at 10 a.m. after the parents had been informed of the new regulations by letter the day before. Zinsbacher regretted the lack of communication and also raised the question of how the children would be transported. Because children from Seeham, for example, would also be affected, a new bus route would have to be set up. “And the community has to pay,” said Zinsbacher.
Aside from formal criteria such as school districts, it is also about a sense of belonging. “For many people, there is also an inner bond after Miesbach,” said Hans Holzinger (FW). He suspected that this new practice was intended to secure the Holzkirchen middle school.
There should definitely be a solution. Mayor Wöhr therefore suggested talking to the school authority. “We want an amicable solution,” he emphasized, “but I don’t know what constraints there are for the school authority that it can’t get out of.” The last alternative is for parents to submit guest school applications for their children, she says have to justify why they want to send their child to Miesbach instead of Holzkirchen. Normally they would then have to pay the transport costs themselves. Wöhr suggested that the community could do this voluntarily. Because the route is shorter and the connection is better, it would actually probably not be more expensive for the community than transport to Holzkirchen.
Currently, 29 children from the community of Weyarn attend the middle school in Miesbach and eight attend the middle school in Holzkirchen. These would not be affected by the new regulation. There are expected to be six children in the new school year. If they apply for a guest school, the Miesbach middle school must also agree. However, Wöhr is not particularly worried about that. Weyarn currently pays almost 190,000 euros annually to the Miesbach school association for the 29 students in Miesbach - including transport costs. For the Miesbach school association, which also has to bear the costs of the renovation, it is financially interesting to keep the Weyarner students.
Anian Rutz (UWG) also noted that with the planned refugee accommodation in Warngau, new students would probably come to Holzkirchen anyway. “The number cannot be predicted yet,” he said. The five or six students from Weyarn, on the other hand, would hardly secure the Holzkirchen middle school location.
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