The city’s population has grown significantly in recent years, and rising birth rates and planned housing projects will also have a major impact on student numbers in the coming years. In its most recent meeting, the cultural senate agreed that infrastructural adjustments are necessary, which affect the schools in bamberg in particular.
"The top priority for consideration is the area east of the rail line, since the increase in student numbers there requires a bundle of measures that necessitates a corresponding lead time", explained matthias pfeufer from the municipal education office. In view of the dramatic increases in student numbers in some parts of the city – at the rupprechtschule alone, numbers are rising from 283 students in the current school year to an expected 443 in the 2024/2025 school year – the city faces major challenges, he said. This forecast is based on current data from the residents’ registration office and does not yet take into account the children who will be added in the next few years after various housing projects are completed.
The administration has been working for some time on approaches as to how the city of bamberg can meet these changed needs – and how receptive the individual schools still are. New containers are now to be set up at the rupprecht school. At the heidelsteigschule, containers will initially be expanded to accommodate the all-day program, while a feasibility study is prepared for the partial renovation and expansion of the school. And the pestalozzischule is to be used temporarily as a branch of the heidelsteigschule after the pending move of the fachhochschule des mittelstands.
Examination of further alliances
At the same time, negotiations are to be held with the government of upper franconia on sensible adjustments to the school districts "in order to be able to distribute the students in the best possible way among the existing schools in the future. At the other elementary and middle schools run by the city of bamberg, pfeufer says that measures will be taken to meet demand and provide relief in the event of shortages. This would also examine further elementary school associations and district adjustments. According to the current state of affairs, building extensions would be necessary at the gaustadt elementary school and at the wunderburg school.
Months ago, the SPD parliamentary group had already asked how busy the schools were and whether the capacities would still be sufficient in the future. In may, GAL city councilor andreas reub called for "a concrete, goal-oriented package of measures with measurable and verifiable milestones – including prioritization and financing plan. Reub criticized that there was not yet much evidence of this. Pfeufer explained that such a strategy paper is not to be provided in so short time.
The administration also wants to keep an eye on the legal entitlement to all-day education and childcare for primary school children, which will come into effect in 2025. The states currently assumed that a supply rate of 90 percent, a five-day weekly supply and a period of 40 school weeks and eight weeks of supervised vacation time, must be based on all calculations.