New Management Announced for Two Middle Schools in Lower Austria

Two middle schools will be run by new management as of September 1st. The decision to do so was recently made in the Lower Austrian education department. While Herwig Rohringer succeeds Doris Aigner at the business and music middle school in Waidhofen, Petra Stattmann takes over the management of the middle school in Ybbsitz from Elisabeth Schasching. The two most deserving directors will retire at the end of August.

Herwig Rohringer succeeds Doris Aigner

Rohringer, who had already been Aigner’s deputy for a year and a half, will be put in charge for the time being, as will Stattmann. Rohringer himself has teacher training exams in mathematics, physics, chemistry, music and physical education and is therefore well equipped for the challenges of a business and music school. With 220 children in nine classes, the Waidhofen school has the largest number of students in the region.

“I would like to further develop both areas of focus, make the music area even more attractive and at the same time strengthen the economic area,” says Rohringer, who has been teaching at the school since 2001. Performing musicals regularly in the coming years is one of Rohringer’s plans.

Petra Stattmann succeeds Elisabeth Schasching

With eight classes and 160 pupils, the second largest middle school in the region is the MS Ybbsitz, where the chosen path of the MINT focus (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology) is logically continued with Petra Stattmann. “The MINT focus has turned out to be the right path for our school, both for the young people and for the teachers and parents,” says new director Petra Stattmann. The director Elisabeth Schasching, who is enthusiastic about MINT, is succeeded by another MINT enthusiast. “It is important to all of us that all students – without exception – can develop in the best possible way according to their strengths and interests,” says Stattmann.

She is starting the new school year with an innovation, namely the introduction of a partnership with the “Mintality” foundation, an initiative in which technology is strengthened for young people, and especially for girls, together with business enterprises. “We can benefit from numerous business partnerships and excursions and courses that are fully financed by the foundation,” says Stattmann, who wants to make lessons eventful, strengthen children and relieve parents financially at the same time. With five new teachers in her 20-person team, she starts the school year with increasing student numbers.

The biologist and German teacher, Stattmann, has been at the school since 2005 and has already developed numerous projects such as the cooperation with the WasserCluster Lunz and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. Over the two decades of her work at the Ybbsitz middle school, she has also distinguished herself as an outstanding talent promoter. The school is well equipped for basic digital education.

Both schools are pointing towards further development. “The focus is on the child” is the credo of both directorates.