Explosive demand: Aarau-Buchs district school board should be abolished

In order to simplify the governance structure of the Aarau-Buchs district school, the school board wants to abolish the school parliament. The town and local council welcomes this.

The Aarau-Buchs district school board wants to abolish the district school council. He recommends this to the school parliament based on a site assessment.

The old Buchs-Rohr district school already had a district school board. When it merged with the Aarau school, the new district school Aarau-Buchs (KSAB) also got a school parliament, which represents the assembly of representatives of the “district school” community association. There is currently nothing like this in any other school in the Aargau. There are 16 elected members on the regional school council, 5 of them from Buchs and 11 from Aarau. In addition, heads of education departments from the local council and the city council belong to the council ex officio. For example, the district school board elects the school board, approves the budget and loans and issues regulations.

But since the first meeting of the district school board in the fall of 2017, things have been going wrong. These are the political cultures of two colliding communities. There are unclear responsibilities, there are claims to power, different world views and political homes. And there are different ideas about what should be “best” for the school, the communities, the staff, the children and the parents – or what it shouldn’t be.

The dissolution of the parochial school is not an issue

The school board had an external office that had already processed the events at Zelgli evaluating the organizational structure and leadership at the highest level. How does the school board – the strategic level -, the school management and the district school council work together? Where is action needed? Clearly the school board did not want to discuss whether the district school had the right to exist or whether it should be dissolved again.

The report now shows that the school is working and “there is general satisfaction with the KSAB” – although, if you look more closely at the results, there is also a lot of dissatisfaction. However, there is a great need for optimization, writes the school board in a message to the district school board. There is a lack of a stable foundation of value consensus, identity, alignment and resilience across the various governing bodies. There are “big cracks” in mutual trust.

For further action, the school board took a closer look at two options: Eliminate the district school board to simplify decision-making processes and reduce the complexity of the organizational and leadership structures. Or holding the district school board temporarily, together with the development of a consensus of values, a “common denominator for the management of the KSAB” and the launch of a trust and identity building process. Abolishing the district school board would not be later if it turns out that this is the best option to study appropriate organizational models.

The size of the school is not a problem

The school board is in favor of the option to “eliminate the district school council” and is appealing to the district school council to release 80,000 francs to support the process. “The KSAB must quickly develop into a good school based on trust and widely accepted on the basis of a lean, professional and practical organization,” he writes. And he suggests: “It is not the size that is in the school’s way in this process.”

Buchs local council and Aarau town council support the abolition of the district school council. However, they would like the executive bodies of the town associations to be represented on the school board. This currently consists of five people from Buchs and Aarau, none of whom hold other political offices.

The school board writes in the message that they are aware of the great responsibility it has as the strategic management body of the largest primary school in Aargau (3,800 students, 650 employees, twelve places). Action is needed both in structural terms (simplifying decision-making processes, responsibilities and organizational structure) and in ideological terms (consensus on values, building trust and identity). “The commitment to KSAB needs to be renewed,” the school board said.

The primary school is a key element of social cohesion. “If the institution of the school is called into question – as has happened again and again in recent years with the Aarau-Buchs district school – society as a whole loses out .” For the region of Aarau and its successful sustainable development, the KSAB is an important location factor, “which determines whether people find the center of their lives and companies find their place here or not”.