At the beginning of April, the teachers and staff of the George-Sand college, a human-sized establishment to the west of Toulon, had learned of the upcoming closure of their establishment. A misunderstanding all the greater as the building belonging to the town hall was ceded to the Department until 2027. But for a question of school map of the primary schools, the municipality wanted to recover the establishment and distribute the college students to the Marquisanne, Peresc (located in the city center) and Puget where more than 900 students already live together.
Faced with the rebellion of teachers who had very quickly collected 800 signatures from former students, parents and traders all opposed to this closure (petition initialed by 1,400 people today), the municipality had tried to clear the land. ” Josée Massi made commitments for Monsieur Falco when she received us on May 4th. She asked us to stop making the fuss and call the press to let them work to find a secondary school sectorization scenario accompanied by a primary sectorization plan because they want to recover the building for the primary »explains Nicolas Taïeb, Force Ouvrière representative.
During this interview, Massi, who was still an education assistant at the time, pointed to the too limited capacity of the Pont du Las school and the lack of premises available to have a Toulon “relay school” to accommodate the students when one of them is in work. She also insisted on the filling rate of Toulon colleges which does not reach 100%, thus justifying the possibility of closing an establishment of 300 students.
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Notice of strike filed
« We do not support colleges of 1 000 students. This considerably degrades learning conditions and the school climate. This is confirmed by the level of student results, which are often much better in colleges with small structures in accordance with the recommendations of the National Education. remarked the teachers. If she had not committed to suspending the closure, Josée Massi finally consented to the study of an alternative scenario which would be presented in June.
« Mrs. Massi, now first assistant, accompanied by Gilles Romeo, director of colleges in the Department, presented this new plan to us on 28 last June. I pointed out to them that this plan provided for the redrawing of the school map of the second degree but not that of the primary. It therefore does not solve the problem of the primary school next door and it is therefore not viable. Monsieur Romeo confirmed it to me “, indicates Isaline Cornil, trade unionist, professor at George-Sand and candidate (FI) of the New popular ecological and social union on the 2e constituency of the Var.
Scheduled for 2023 or 2024, the closure of the college should finally take place in 2025 even if the teachers have not said their last word and have already filed a strike notice for the start of the school year. ” We are also going to ask for an audience with the prefect since the town hall does not answer us. We are filing this notice in the hope that it will make the various players think. Colleagues are ready to fight it out and strike from day one “, adds Nicolas Taieb.
On the political side, the communist elected André de Ubeda brought this question to the last municipal council, specifying that there is ” other solutions without deleting this college ». « It is the only human-sized college in Toulon. Everything is pushing for a change of school map in primary schools in order to relieve congestion at the Pont du Las school. We have to keep George-Sand, which works well and the solution exists. We put money with “educational cities” where Toulon will receive 2.4 million euros in this context and we will do the opposite of logic and the well-being of teachers and students ? wonders the elected representative of Toulon in common.
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