The council did not cancel the school cut decision – Lääne Elu

The council decided that Metsküla school – this year’s school of the year – will be closed from September 1. The council was not willing to change this decision today. Photo: Urmas Lauri

The Lääneranta power alliance did not break, and the council did not cancel the decision to reorganize educational institutions made on March 24.

Council member Raul Obertschneider had submitted a draft to the council.

At the March session, the Lääneranna council decided that Lõpe and Metsküla schools will be closed from August 31 and Virtsu school will no longer have classes from 5 to 9. class and that from September 1 of the coming year there will be no 7-9 classes in either Koonga or Varbla school.

The court has granted primary legal protection to three schools – Lõpe, Virtsu and Metsküla.

Oberschneider said that his bill is not intended to hinder the work of the municipal government, but to provide an opportunity to restore cooperation and domestic peace. His draft – the annulment of the previous decision – is a proposal to reach such an out-of-court settlement.

The village head Ingvar Saare told the council that the village government does not support Oberschneider’s bill. According to the village head, school cuts have not been made based on emotions, but on the basis of financial needs. According to Saare, the quality of education in the municipality will improve due to the reorganization.

The mayor was also not satisfied with the fact that Minister of Education Kristina Kallas has started to condemn the activities of Lääneranna municipality. Vallavanem said that the municipality has contested the preliminary legal protection granted to three schools – Virtsule, Meisküla and Lõpe – and will not give up on it, because in the opinion of the municipality government, the court’s considerations when making the decision were not justified.

The mayor stated that the council’s decision to cut schools has been criticized a lot. “Ignorance and lack of depth is apparent from the criticisms,” stated Saare.

Janar Sõber, chairman of the council’s education committee, said that the committee does not support Oberschneider’s bill, three committee members were in favor of such a decision, while two committee members were against it.

Council chairman Armand Reinmaa put the draft decision to vote. Seven councilors were in favor of the bill presented by Raul Oberschneider, while 12 were against it. Karmen Pikkmets and Mardo Leiumaa were absent from the session.

Oberschneider also prepared a bill for the reorganization of educational institutions for the March session. At that time, he only wanted to change the organization of the school at the end, because there the number of students in the third school level had fallen to the point where it is not reasonable to maintain a school level. Also in March, the council voted down Oberschneider’s bill.