Velyanova and company in a fierce battle for the status quo
In order to maintain the status quo at the Italian Lyceum in Gorna Banya, an informal, semi-conspiratorial group has spontaneously formed over the past few weeks. Like its predecessors from the 1970s in China, known as the “Gang of Four” and their followers here, they hold daily secret meetings in the office of retired director Velichka Velyanova, who was driven to vacate the post of “interim acting”.
The four of them are banging their heads around the clock on how to preserve the damned “status quo”, which is – an elite public school, overgrown with numerous parasitic private structures, mercilessly draining its financial resources.
And here the central figure is a woman /as in China – the wife of Mao Zedong/, Velichka Velyanova. The other three – Spas Panchev, Rosen Tomov and Stiliyan Tyutyunjiev – all with a controversial reputation in the Internet space, to say the least, head the aforementioned private foundations, associations, a private kindergarten, a private school… And many, many properties transferred in all directions.
The idea of the conciliators is to take advantage of the change of the Minister of Culture Velislav Minekov, to side with the new Minister Nayden Todorov, to fail the competition for the election of the director of the NUKK, and for Aunt Velichka to keep her post at least until the end of the academic year year – that is, to accept another few hundred “talented” children of generous parents who paid the corresponding fat fees in the private educational preparatory center of her daughter Zornitsa.
And then – the lady has also prepared a “cheerful change” – her protégé Ivan Kapurdov, a biology teacher, will formally ascend to the throne of the “pharaoh”, but behind the scenes she and the “gang of four” will continue to pull the strings. Their long-term goal is to first extinguish the tax audits appointed by the National Revenue Agency, to keep the 35-year-old empire intact. There are rumors, which we do not want to believe, that in a more distant perspective there are also 120 decares in the “Kambanite” area, owned by the Lyceum.
And as often happens in our suffering Motherland, there will always be someone, an obese ministerial official from the Ministry of Culture, who will pick his nose, ear, scratch himself in some not-so-decent place and fail the selection contest to a new director of NUKK, finding a “reason” for his postponement… Also, why should he get into trouble with such an “undisputed authority” as Velichka Velyanova – winner of the highest state honors – Order of “Stara Planina”, “Kyril and Methodius”, “Golden Age”… for achieved “high achievements” in the educational process – the Lyceum, after 35 years of her wise leadership, is already going to the bottom in the ranking of success in the state matriculation exams.
In the end, the saga with the retirement of the “indispensable”, supposedly “temporary director”, Velichka Velyanova acquired a historical, melodramatic character. For 15 years, the same scenario has been repeated – towards the end of the school year, tormented moans can be heard from the principal’s office: “Oh, I’m overtired, this year I’m going to retire”, but in September she is back at her combat post in the principal’s office in front of TV series. And then… the school year has already started and it is not appropriate to change the principal… And a collection of melodramatic “signatures from parents” begins, writing letters from everyone to the President, Prime Minister, to embassies and to… God knows where else.
This is how they failed last year already a competition in which 5 naive enthusiasts had submitted their documents for the directorship of the Lyceum. This year, things moved one step forward – the minister appointed a committee that approved three candidates, and… again, a beam – a new minister, new signatures, new, already well-worn intrigues… Not to mention how the once again lied to participants in the announced events feel contests and whether they have even an iota of faith left in the laws and in the Bulgarian institutions.
The new Minister of Culture, Nayden Todorov, has two options – to comply with the law and end the procedure for holding the long-running and long-suffering competition and in the coming days to appoint a new director of the Italian Lyceum, or to allow himself to be entangled in the webs of the status quo and let Lycea’s free fall continue…
