Education: Do 21 students need a building worth millions?

The two locations of the Wilhelm-Busch-Förderschule will be merged in Illertissen

Should a completely new building actually be built for only 21 students, which will then cost an estimated 7.2 million euros? That was what the debate on Thursday in the district committee for education, culture and sport was about. One person in particular resisted expensive new construction plans.

The government has long been invading Schwaben to bundle the two branches of the Wilhelm-Busch-Förderschule and the classes that are in Weißenhorn be taught at the larger and more modern locations Illertissen relocate. During the early days of the Corona crisis, this was provisionally the case: Because the district’s disaster plans had determined the Claretin College as a possible auxiliary hospital, the Montessori school housed there moved into the rooms of the special needs school – which in turn brought its boys and girls to Illertissen under. In the meantime, this move has been reversed, but the committee wants the Weißenhorn location to be abandoned in the long term. In order to create enough space in Illertissen, an extension was considered three years ago. It was supposed to cost five million euros back then, today it would be around 7.2 million, Heiko Schleifer, the responsible department head in the district office, has roughly calculated.

The government of Swabia had argued that the split into two locations was to blame for the sharp decline in students over the past 15 years. In addition, many resources fell by the wayside because of the long distances involved. In the future, Illertissen should offer a continuous all-day offer. For this purpose, grades eight and nine, who still have their classrooms in Weißenhorn, would have to move to Illertissen. This would affect 21 students.

But do you want to build an expensive additional building right away? Ansgar Batzner (FDP) thought that was exaggerated: “We cannot afford that,” he said, “the fat years are over.” In view of the looming tax shortfalls, every euro must be turned over in the future. The fact that the number of pupils has fallen so sharply – although the negative trend now seems to have broken again – is not due to the two locations, but to the inclusion. Significantly more children who would have previously attended special needs schools are now taught in regular schools. Batzner: “That is the main reason.”

His criticism did not result in decisive opposition. Herbert Pressl (CSU) expressed doubts about inclusion: “Moving the children to mainstream school is not always the right approach. They are better looked after in the special needs school. ”That is why it is important to strengthen the Wilhelm Busch School and to merge the locations. Gabriele Rzehak-Wartha (Greens) demanded that the cheapest possible solution for the merger had to be found. In addition, it is completely uneconomical if a large part of the building in Weißenhorn remains unused. The special school currently occupies only 30 percent of the space. That in turn brought Krimhilde Dornach (ÖDP) to the question of why Weißenhorn was not used as a location, since the city offers a lot of infrastructure. However, the government of Swabia chose Illertissen as the location because it is easily accessible from a traffic point of view and is much more central. Claudia Thoma, responsible for special schools in the government, responded to Batzner’s argument that a possible extension would not only benefit 21 students, but the whole school, for example by setting up a cafeteria. District Administrator Thorsten Freudenberger (CSU) assured that the focus should be on pedagogy, but the District Office is also looking for cheaper solutions: “We’ll see how this can be done.”

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