In Bagnolet, residents are mobilizing for their educational sheepfold – Liberation

This Monday, around forty people gathered in the popular district of Malassis against the eviction of an ecological, social and cultural farm. Its destruction must allow the installation of a renovated school, with the tunes of “airport or shopping center”.–

“License to build shame!!!” This is what can be read on the site sign posted on the Pêche d’Or school in Bagnolet. Scheduled for the spring and then renewed, the school’s renovation project was to begin on Monday. But in the ranks of parents of students and residents of the neighborhood, it is not the destruction of the dilapidated kindergarten that is the subject of debate. The tension lies in the project adopted in 2018 by the municipal council of Bagnolet. A concrete building 17 meters high, with three floors, which will house ten classes, five more than at present, a leisure center and a public crèche. “It looks more like an airport or a mall than a school,” condemns Gilles Amar, employee of the sheepfold.

“No to destruction”

“We call it ‘sheepfold’ but we should rather say ‘goat’s quarters’ in fact, because we have around twenty goats for around ten sheep.” Never mind: this morning, in Bagnolet, the word was on everyone’s lips. “It is an associative educational farm that has lived in the school since 2011, explains this breeder and gardener. One does not go without the other: it is a set to defend. Children’s scriptures ordering “Do not destroy the Malassis sheepfold” or “No to destruction” on the school’s red grid prove him right. Finally, the launch is abandoned – for the day.

In thirteen years, the Malassis sheepfold and its charismatic founder have established themselves as an essential part of the social fabric of the district. Originally from Montreuil, Popeck discovered the place three years ago with his friends and now goes there once a week when his studies allow him. He therefore insisted on being present this morning to “defend this place of cultural and social life.” “The concept of having animals in the middle of cities, I find it really classy”, entrusts the student of fine arts, busy drawing goats and sheep on a flocked cardboard “Area to be defended”. He will learn a few minutes later that after a meeting with the mayor of Bagnolet, Gilles Amar agreed, “The death in the soul”, to move his farm.

“Symbolic visit”

Faced with resistance, Tony Di Martino, socialist mayor of Bagnolet, persists and signs. “We are quite proud of this project. We are going to cut down trees, but replant them elsewhere, and we are currently working on the debitumization of a schoolyard on the edge of the Malassis.” The municipality is betting on a green roof, which leaves Diane skeptical: “We have no illusions that the trees will not last two months, or that they will require a lot of water consumption.”

At the end of the morning, the deputy La France insoumise of Seine-Saint-Denis Alexis Corbière made a “symbolic visit” to the inhabitants of the Malassis district, undertaking to question the Minister of National Education on the subject.

The support committee for the “Pêche d’or-Bergerie islet” was received this morning by Tony Di Martino. “The existing school will be destroyed at the same time as the new one will be erected, can you imagine? justifies Diane, an activist from Bagnolet. The children are going to be in the dust and the noise for at least two years.” “If we have to get new subsidies, we will do it”, replies the chosen one, nevertheless recalling “that this project is already financed at 70% by the State, and 10% by the region. If the work could not be carried out on Monday, the mayor firmly announces “no longer defer it”, not excluding “to resort to public force”. The school is expected to open in the fall of 2024.

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