- The elementary and middle school on Hammerschmiedweg in Wolfratshausen is being completely renovated and expanded.
- Current cost estimate: 60 million euros - too much for the municipality.
- School advisor Fritz Meixner explains in an interview with our newspaper how things are going now.
Wolfratshausen - Fritz Meixner (51) has been a city councilor since 2014 and speaks for the SPD parliamentary group, which has also included a representative of the FDP since the new term of office. Two years ago, the committee elected the managing director of the Wolfratshausen child and youth development association as school advisor to the city council. In an interview with our newspaper, Meixner breaks a lance for the secondary schools, explains how the general refurbishment and expansion of the primary and secondary school on Hammerschmiedweg will continue and says what fatal signal "it must never come".
Mr. Meixner, what does the school clerk do during the big holidays?
He switches off completely for a week or two and draws new strength. Because school is a really big topic for the city of Wolfratshausen.
What makes the Wolfratshausen school location special - or is it a school location like many others?
In the coming years, baby boomers will start school
The specialty is that we have to take into account several large complexes that are interwoven with one another, that means we have to keep an eye on them: all-day care, two buildings in need of renovation, the merger of two secondary schools and the development of the number of students. The fact is: We have strong cohorts who will start school in the coming years. We need more space in primary schools.
This development is well known and the municipality cannot be surprised.
Correct. We have been dealing with the topic for a long time and took the relevant resolutions back in 2015. So we are not surprised by the number of students.
The consequences?
The status is that we have a four-class elementary school in Wolfratshausen with Weidach, that is, four classes in each year. We have three classes on Hammerschmiedweg and one in Weidach. Long-term five-folds can be expected in the future. Four classes on Hammerschmiedweg and one in Weidach - if the Weidach location is retained.
How likely or unlikely is that?
To answer this question, one must not only look at the development of the number of pupils, but also take a close look at two municipal buildings: the old school for girls on Hammerschmiedweg and the primary school building in Weidach. When the city sets out to plan the future of the school that our children will attend for the next few decades, it is legitimate to question the location of Weidach from an economic point of view alone. There is an option to close this location and bring the four classes to Hammerschmiedweg. As is well known, a new elementary school is planned there - four additional classrooms could be considered in this. The alternative would be to renovate the Weidach school. But I have to consider: It is a very old building, the general renovation would have to be carried out in the existing building, and an interim solution would have to be created for the construction period.
I would say: It is well known that we have a renovation backlog in Weidach and at the Madlschule am Hammerschmiedweg. "
Fritz Meixner, school clerk of the Wolfratshausen city councilThat sounds like a central primary school location on Hammerschmiedweg.
This decision has to be made by the city council.
How high is the time pressure for this decision?
High. In this context, I bring the keyword climate emergency into play. We know from the energy reports - I'll put it casually - that we heat out the window in Weidach.
Has anything been neglected in the maintenance of the building in recent years?
I would say: It is well known that we have a renovation backlog in Weidach and at the Madlschule am Hammerschmiedweg. But one more word about the pressure to make decisions: This also results from the all-day care. There are merciless facts here, which means that the use of after-school care is increasing continuously. For the 2020/21 school year we will get new top values. We were always around 65 percent utilization, in Wolfratshausen-Weidach we reach 77 in the new school year and 80 percent in Waldram for the new first graders.
What childcare options are currently available in Wolfratshausen?
On the one hand there is the day care center and on the other hand the lunchtime care. But you have to know: The federal government wants to introduce a legal right to all-day care for school children in 2025. The course has already been set, the federal government wants to provide cities and municipalities with two to three billion euros for the expansion of all-day care.
The school clerk of the Wolfratshausen city council is already shouting “Here!” To get some of the money?
(laughs) Of course. It would be extremely negligent if, on the one hand, we already know how high the demand is currently in Wolfratshausen, that the number of schoolchildren will increase in the next few years, that is, more space will be needed for childcare in the afternoon - and that it would on the other hand, ignore the topic of funding opportunities.
Concepts must be developed for all-day care
Are there areas that can be used to expand all-day care?
No, they don't exist at the moment. They would have to be created. At this point, however, I would like to point out: The city of Wolfratshausen has been excellently positioned in terms of childcare for many years. However, we have currently outsourced lunch care at the Hammerschmiedschule to two temporary locations. 70 children are looked after in the container facility on Königsdorfer Strasse. The containers are on private land, the lease is limited to 2023 - so much for the pressure to make decisions. In addition, 27, 30 girls and boys are looked after in the La Vida youth center. The bottom line is that 100 children from lunchtime care are accommodated in makeshift arrangements. And accommodation in the container facility is a very expensive temporary solution.
The alternative?
Develop concepts and create the space in which all-day care can take place in a child-friendly, long-term and sustainable manner. We have to design a primary school location for all-day offers so that it can develop. The school authorities gave us that as homework to take along.
Is the place where?
We have to create this in the course of the general renovation and expansion of the elementary and middle school on Hammerschmiedweg - with cafeteria.
The cost estimate for the renovation and expansion is currently 60 million euros.
That's the way it is. Because of this sum, as is well known, everything is available again. But we will not be able to avoid making definitive decisions very soon - and this is also how Mayor Klaus Heilinglechner is planning. In principle, the school development plan provides that the two primary school locations, Wolfratshausen and Waldram, will be retained. The second premise: there will no longer be two middle school locations in the long run, we have to merge the two middle schools.
Why this?
It's a very complex subject. To put it simply: We have too few students for two middle school locations in the context of the allocation of teacher hours, the keyword is transfer rate. Unfortunately, the middle school does not generally have a good reputation, although I would like to emphasize that both of our middle schools do excellent work. But in the city council's retreat in the Loisachhalle, school authority director Petra Burkhardt once again clearly stated that there was no way around the merger of the secondary schools in Wolfratshausen. By the way: the two school principals, Frank Schwesig and Josef Märkl, also took part in the exam.
As early as February the city council stated: 60 million euros for a modern school center on Hammerschmiedweg are not financially feasible.
Correct. But I assume that we don't need 60 million euros. I would like to see more differentiation in the discussion. And you have to look back briefly: How did the initial 30 million turn into 60 million euros? Answer: The city council expanded the shopping list after the first cost estimate. Strictly speaking, this shopping list was a checklist. We have added around 16,000 cubic meters of buildable space to the original plan. Specifically: We are still considering building an underground car park and a new building on the site of the existing auditorium on Hammerschmiedweg. So we're talking about an increase in volume - which has not yet been decided! - which would cost almost ten million euros. Plus 5.7 million euros for a container solution during the construction period. We now know that the construction sequence works without students / teachers having to move into interim containers. The increased construction price index - almost two million euros since the first estimate - and in-depth subsoil investigations have also contributed to the increase in costs. And: The current cost estimate takes into account a safety reserve of five million euros. If you add it all up, 30 becomes around 60 million euros.
Is there a cheap option, an emergency solution?
Ergo, the project has to be slimmed down.
The full program cannot be financed by the municipality, that's for sure. We have to take another look at everything.
That means there is a cheap option, an emergency solution ...
... under no circumstance! I don't see it that way at all. With a view to the merger of middle schools, all-day care and the requirements for a modern, small-scale elementary school with a sustainable educational concept, we will get exactly what we need. Even if we have to cut corners.
They have to be done where?
The city council will have to decide that. But let me ask the question: Do we need an underground car park? The modules that we can take out are clearly named in the closed conference in the Loisachhalle and each has been charged with costs. But: the longer we postpone decisions, the more expensive the project becomes. In the best case, we will show our colors this year so that we can get started in the school year 2021/22. But it is also important for me to say: We have not planned a luxury school.
Can the municipality count on funding for general renovation and expansion?
Yes, the Free State is on board. To put it simply, the funding works against the background of space programs - we are in the area of a five-class elementary school. The Free State says: If you build in a certain area, the project is eligible. And the way our school is planned, it corresponds exactly to the specification in terms of surface bandwidth. All in all, we're talking about 36 classrooms for elementary and middle school students on Hammerschmiedweg.
Let's make it specific: What will, what may the “mega-project”, as Mayor Heilinglechner calls it, cost?
No savings should be made on subsidies for clubs
First of all: It is one of the most extensive and expensive mandatory tasks that the city has had to deal with for many years. It is definitely a big challenge. I think that we can realize a future-oriented school under 50 million euros. With the appropriate government funding, we might be able to end up with a three in front of the total. And if we spread this sum over several budget years, we should be able to shoulder the project, which is an investment in the coming decades.
Otherwise do other projects have to fall victim to the red pen?
Where should the city save? With the smaller amounts like the club subsidies? The club life makes our city attractive and worth living in. As a school clerk - and I think I speak for all of my fellow city councilors - I definitely don't want to make any savings. The corona crisis showed us what a city looks like when club life comes to a standstill. Now that social life is slowly returning, to say that we are cutting grants for volunteer work would be a fatal signal that must never come.