In Penzberg there will be nothing this year with the establishment of an “active school”.
The initiators have postponed a possible start to the year 2022.
The main reason: To date, their lawsuit against the government's no to the school concept has not been tried in court.
Penzberg - The hope of the initiators was: If a court date comes about by the end of January and the court decides in favor of the initiative, then a new application to found a school could be submitted by the end of March and the “Active School” opened in September 2021.
Last December, the hope was no longer too great.
But if there is an appointment at short notice, one would pull together all the strength and start, it was said at the time.
Nothing will come of it now.
Yvonne Schmerbeck, a member of the school founder initiative, said on request that there has not yet been a court date.
Initiators postpone the start to 2022
At a meeting, the initiative therefore agreed to postpone the start to 2022.
"It is not feasible this year," said Schmerbeck.
On the one hand, because a judgment cannot be foreseen and the virtual information events that would begin now would have to be labeled with a “big maybe”.
On the other hand, the corona pandemic makes preparations even more difficult.
A school opening in Penzberg is now targeted for September 2022.
According to Schmerbeck, advertising will begin next April to attract parents.
Team is looking for a school building again
According to her, a new application - the deadline would run until the end of March - will not be submitted to the government of Upper Bavaria this year.
This should now be done by the end of March 2022.
Until then, so the hope is that the school founders will have a positive judgment.
So there is still time.
The school founders can, however, also use them.
The concern that the potential school building will no longer be vacant after all the delays has come true.
There would only be one floor available, which could at least temporarily suffice.
However, the “active school” wants to move on to a secondary school as quickly as possible.
The initiative is now looking for a new domicile in Penzberg.
As reported, the “Active School” wanted to move into a house “Am alten Bahnhof”, which used to be the home of the Montessori school.
In spite of everything, Yvonne Schmerbeck remains optimistic: "I am very hopeful that we can start in the 2022/2023 school year."
Lawsuit against government: initiators have so far been waiting in vain for the court date
Originally, the initiative had even planned to start in the 2020/2021 school year, with a mixed-year class, two teachers and an educator.
At the end of March 2020, she sent her educational concept to the government of Upper Bavaria.
At that time, however, the authorities did not give the green light to found the school.
The team then hired a lawyer with experience - he had already represented an initiative in court that wanted to establish a school with the same concept in Munich and Petershausen (it has existed there since 2009).
Because the government stuck with its no, the initiative filed a lawsuit with the administrative court last summer.
To date, however, there has been no court date.
Last December, the initiative received a message from its lawyer that the negotiations had been put on hold due to the corona.
The lawsuit is essentially about the school concept and the "special educational interest" in an "active school".
According to the law, this interest is a prerequisite for opening a private school.
The government denies this interest.
If, on the other hand, the court recognized the special interest, the initiative would have jumped the highest hurdle.
The initiative could then submit its new application in a more relaxed manner.