This is the real good news of the start of the year, at least one in the still cloudy atmosphere of January, and it allows dozens of families to enter 2021 with a little serenity. At the start of the next school year, the Saints-Anges school will open its doors to the nearly 370 children it has welcomed for more than 50 years, in a 3,000 m 2 building on rue de Vouillé (15th district).
The threat of closure, due to the repossession of its property by the Saints-Anges public utility, owner of the place, is ruled out for at least one year. A reprieve won over the years, that the educational team, parents and students of this school acclaimed for its model and its voluntarism in the inclusion of so – called “different” children, suffering from developmental or learning disabilities, hope. transform into permanent maintenance.
A petition of 15,000 signatures
Everything now depends on the outcome of the long-term negotiation initiated by intervening lawyers, between the heir to the founders of the Oeuvre des Saints-Anges and the Catholic Education Management Organization (Ogec). Against the backdrop of a mobilization of an unprecedented scale to save the establishment, and a petition still active with nearly 15,000 signatures, the previously difficult dialogue has resumed between the owner and the diocesan manager. The latter is working on eggshells but “We have a few months to find the best agreement and finalize the ideal solution which will definitively save the school and all that it represents through its pedagogy, its inclusion, the wealth of activities it offers. », As admitted with caution the president of Ogec, Benoît Hérard.
Will the diocese buy the site?
This ideal solution families want to believe in is the buyout of the building by the diocese. “This is our will, in part thanks to the Association for mutual aid and support for Parisian Catholic establishments (Aesp)”, confirms Benoît Hérard. Created 20 years ago, Aesp brings together the properties of Catholic schools in the capital, and makes it possible to separate management and teaching, in support of a lease.
In the case of the Saints-Anges, the school could then reimburse Aesp in the form of rent. “The school did not pay rent until now, it took charge of the work but occupied the place according to a commodat, and the sound management of the establishment is an asset,” recalls the president of Ogec. “So we are not yet at this stage, he moderates, the promise to sell is still under negotiation, but the dialogue has resumed. We have come a long way ”.
Hope of parents and children
Confident but just as cautious, watching for the slightest advance with the hope of “not reliving in a few months the hammer blow of the end of September, when the announcement of the closure”, the parents of students want to believe it. “The support we have received has encouraged us a lot, the diocese has also been behind us from the start,” emphasizes a mother. The announcement of this extra year gained was as if a tremendous weight had suddenly been taken off the shoulders of everyone, the families, the children themselves, the school team. Everyone was doing their job, the school was working perfectly, but there was this huge burden … We feel lighter to continue negotiating! “
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