Friday’s meeting with the town’s various AMPAS (parents’ associations), the management of IES Las Viñas, the education councillor and the mayor of Manilva himself has produced a roadmap for moving forward with the construction of the new secondary school. However, five years after the Town Hall announced that Manilva would have a second secondary school, there is still no guaranteed funding and no draft basic project. Seven months after the administrative problems that had stalled the file were explained, the education community is once again waiting for the procedures relating to the land to be resolved.
The construction of a second secondary school in Manilva took another step forward on Friday, at least in terms of intentions. The meeting held in Málaga between the territorial delegate for Educational Development and Vocational Training, Miguel Briones, representatives of the AMPAS, the management of IES Las Viñas and municipal officials has established a series of actions aimed at unblocking a project that the education community has been demanding for years.
Families left the meeting with a positive assessment. According to what they reported, they came away with a timetable of actions and the commitment of the Junta de Andalucía to seek funding to be able to push forward the basic project for the future secondary school. However, there is also a reality that should not be lost sight of: as things stand, there is no guaranteed budget allocation for its construction, there is no draft basic project and no date has been set for the start of works.
The situation inevitably recalls the meeting held on 13 March, when the president of the school’s AMPA, Ana Domínguez, and the head of IES Las Viñas, Mª Esperanza Cebrián, travelled to Málaga to find out the reasons for the stalling of the file. At that time, the Delegation attributed the delays to administrative problems relating to the land. The first plot offered by the Town Hall was reportedly rejected for not meeting the technical specifications and, subsequently, the documentation for a new municipal proposal was reportedly sent to the regional delegation in Seville instead of the provincial one in Málaga, so according to the Provincial Delegation the proposal had not reached the right destination.
On that occasion, families already expressed concern that they were not shown any documentation formally proving the commitment to build or the existence of a specific budget allocation. Seven months later, although Friday’s meeting has made it possible to define new steps, the project still has no secured funding and still needs to resolve preliminary issues relating to the land.
A new plot awaiting technical assessment
One of the central issues of the meeting was precisely the location of the future secondary school. The municipal plot granted in 2022 remains a valid option, valid until April 2027, but the Town Hall has also put forward an alternative next to the entrance of the current school, with conditions that could prove more favourable for construction.
The new proposal covers an area of approximately 13,000 square metres, of which around 7,500 square metres would be separated off for the secondary school. The Town Hall would take on the segregation procedures and also the provision of a parking area.
The next step will be for the Andalusian Public Education Agency (APAE) to carry out a technical visit to assess the suitability of this land. This visit is scheduled for the week of 16 November. If the report is favourable, the Town Hall will be able to continue with the necessary procedures. In the meantime, the plot granted in 2022 will remain as an alternative.
The technical assessment will therefore be decisive in determining which land will finally be used and in avoiding further delays caused by administrative or planning issues.
Finding funding, the next major obstacle
The other fundamental issue is money. During the meeting, a commitment was made to study the necessary avenues for funding the basic project, although without specifying a particular budget allocation for the second secondary school.
Among the possibilities raised are turning to the Junta de Andalucía’s own funds or waiting for future European funding calls, whose new framework is not yet open. These are therefore avenues that will need to be studied, but they do not yet amount to confirmed funding, since everything suggests that the new budgets announced by the Junta de Andalucía will only show budget lines for works and education, without naming the projects to which those announced amounts will go.
The education community hopes that this commitment will translate into real progress and that the project can begin to take shape. To that end, once the land question is resolved, APAE will have to prepare the needs programme or preliminary project, and the Junta will have to fund and tender the drafting of the basic project. The detailed construction project will then have to be drawn up and the works put out to tender.
In other words, several administrative and technical phases remain before a date for starting construction can be discussed.
The steps still ahead
The timetable explained during the meeting makes it clear that an administrative and technical process still lies ahead before works can be discussed:
- A visit by an APAE technician to the new plot and preparation of the suitability report.
- If the report is favourable, the Town Hall will carry out the segregation of the land.
- APAE will prepare the needs programme, a kind of preliminary project defining the characteristics and dimensions of the school.
- The Junta must secure funding and tender the drafting of the basic project.
- The detailed construction project will then have to be drawn up and, finally, the works tendered and carried out.
In other words, the commitment now made allows the first procedures to move forward, but it does not yet mean that a construction project exists or that there is a date for the start of works.
Almost 1,400 pupils in a school designed for 700
The urgency of this infrastructure is driven by the situation at IES Las Viñas. The school was designed for around 700 pupils and currently has between 1,300 and 1,400 students, a figure that has forced its facilities to be adapted for years in order to cater for all pupils.
The education community has long been complaining about the lack of space. The school has prefabricated classrooms and has had to use rooms originally intended for other purposes, such as the library, the laboratory or the canteen, for ordinary lessons. Limitations in spaces such as the gym have also been pointed out.
During the meeting, the possibility of extending the current building as a solution to overcrowding was again ruled out. The need to build a second secondary school therefore remains the only option put forward to respond to the growth in pupil numbers and provide the municipality with adequate facilities.
Roof and façade works will begin on 16 November
Separately from the new secondary school, the meeting also addressed the work planned on the current IES Las Viñas building. According to what attendees were told, the work will begin on 16 November and will last approximately seven months.
The project, initially estimated at around 200,000 euros, has risen to around 800,000 euros after a crack was found in the façade and the necessary work was extended.
The roof works should not affect the normal running of lessons. During the work on the façade, the school management and the staff room will be temporarily moved to a prefabricated module.
This work will address problems in the current building, but it does not resolve the lack of space or replace the need for a second secondary school.
Families will keep up the pressure until the school becomes a reality
As a result of the meeting, it has been agreed that the school management will stay in contact with the person responsible for Planning to follow the progress of the procedures. The president of the AMPA will act as spokesperson for the families, and the result of the technical visit to the land will be communicated to both the school management and the mayor.
Families appreciate that, this time, actions and deadlines have been defined. Their impression on leaving the meeting was positive because they consider that a procedure that had been blocked for far too long has been restarted. Nevertheless, they have made it clear that they will keep pushing until the new school is built.
And it is precisely here that the main contradiction of this whole process lies. Manilva has spent close to a decade hearing announcements and commitments about the construction of a second secondary school. In March the administrative problems that had stalled the file were explained, and in October the need to assess land, seek funding and begin preparing a basic project has been put on the table once again.
Friday’s meeting may represent progress, and families have reason to welcome the fact that there is, at last, a more concrete roadmap, but after so many years of announcements, the road still ahead means the feeling is, to a large extent, one of starting over.
