REUTLINGEN. The possible establishment of a Protestant grammar school in Reutlingen and the plans for “Church 2030/40” were the focus of the spring meeting of the Council of the Protestant Church community. No resolutions were passed on either item. Daniel Wagner, commercial director of the school foundation of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg, explained the general conditions set by the board of the foundation. Accordingly, the high school should not be too big. Three parallel classes per year and a total of 700 students are planned in the final stage.
You want to start with the school year 2024/25, if possible in existing church rooms. Only then is the construction of a school building planned. Before that, however, negotiations must be held with the city of Reutlingen.
Currently school
Tremors in the educational landscape: private high school for Reutlingen?
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According to Wagner, it depends on the result whether the project will come about at all. The board of directors of the school foundation, which is the decision-making body from the point of view of the church, has ruled out that the ongoing operation of the grammar school will be subsidized from church tax funds.
Declining revenue in real terms
These were the main concerns in the council, because the entire parish will have to save around 340,000 euros per year from 2030 due to falling real income: “A high school subsidized from church tax funds could not be arranged in the parishes,” it said. Otherwise, Wagner received many positive comments along the way, because the work of the existing Protestant high schools, for example in Mössingen and Kusterdingen, has a good reputation.
The real falling income is also the background for the concept “Church 2030/40”, which is not only to be understood as a savings concept, but is also intended to re-bundle church work in Reutlingen. Dean Marcus Keinath pointed out that at the end of 2004 his predecessor, Dean Dr. Jürgen Mohr, and the then chairman of the entire parish, Dr. Martin Plümicke, the proposal came to the public to provide only four parishes within the entire parish. The parishes in the districts were and are not included in this plan.
Currently training
Elite high school in Reutlingen? Church carrier takes a stand
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The results of the 2004 plans were the merger of the Marien and Leonhardsgemeinde with the sale of the Leonhardskirche and Brenz parish hall and the expansion of the Matthäus-Alber-Haus, the concentration of the Kreuzkirche parish on a parish center at the Kreuzkirche with the sale of two parish halls and the rental of the parish center of the Katharinengemeinde at the Vollen Brunnen. At the most recent meeting, encouraging voices came from these congregations, saying that after the initially gloomy mood, it had been possible to set new positive impulses in congregational life. In Hohbuch in particular, there is currently concern that the only public spaces in the district could be lost if the Evangelical Church there decided to make major savings.
85,000 euros annually
Although the “Church 2030/40” concept expressly provides for a strengthening of church work in the respective city district, it does not yet contain any proposals for church buildings, but appeals to the four sub-areas North, West, South and Central each for 85,000 euros per year save or generate additional income. The concept is to be voted on by the entire parish council at the end of 2022. (jsn)
