Thessaloniki: Fears of closing the 89th Primary School due to stability problems

In upheaval is located school community of the 89th Primary School of Thessaloniki which is located in its area Analipsi, where 140 children study.

The reason is, according to parents and guardians, the technical exposure of his services Municipality of Thessaloniki which the school deems unsuitable.

This morning, before the bell rang, parents together with the young students staged a protest outside the school.

The president of the Association of Parents and Guardians, Antonis Manolis, stated among other things: “An issue has arisen with the looming methodology of the municipality of Thessaloniki for the closure of the 89th Primary school citing technical, static reasons and security of the building”. According to him, there is a paradox as 5 months ago a technical report was made by the municipality from which, as Manolis says, no problem arose. “We cannot understand what changed after only 5 months and how the building went from safe to dangerous,” he noted.

The president of the Association of Parents and Guardians emphasized that transferring the children to other schools in the area is impossible, as all are full, and that the only solution is to build a new modern school in the area. “Until this is done we are asking for a thorough static adequacy study to be done which will provide for methods of repair or static reinforcement if this is required,” he said.

It should be noted that the school is a removable construction and was erected in 1980 in order to house emergency needs after the 1978 earthquake as a temporary solution.

What is the municipality’s response?

The Deputy Mayor of Technical Services of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Prodromos Nikiforidis, talk to Voria.gr and made it clear that there is no decision to close the school but he pointed out that there are some problems which will be investigated further.

Mr. Nikiforidis pointed out that this type of lyomena was built 50 years ago, temporarily. “50 years have passed and no one has worried about them,” he said, while stressing that there is no decision to close the school. “We have asked both the services and the technical chamber, which is an independent body, to tell us what and how with static adequacy. We will do whatever the studies show. If the conclusion of the technical chamber tells us that the building is unsuitable, obviously it should stop its operation. If he tells us that with interventions the building is safe, we will do them. In any case, we are worried”, he underlined.