In September 2021, in the middle of the pandemic and after half a century of closure, the doors of the rural school reopened in Palau de Santa Eulalia, a small town of 130 inhabitants in Alte Empordà (Girona). Five years later, the center would be closed because the mayor, Xavier Baldrich, confirmed that he could not maintain the building and wanted to take it back to move the Ayuntamiento there. The decision led to the division of the city, and the rejection of teachers and families from the center, even though the Ministry of Education accepted it.
The rural school Les Curculles has 18 students, 11 of whom belong to the Integrated Guard, which comes from areas such as Siorana d’Emporda, Sos, Pascara, Santa Lujaya d’Alguema or Torruella di Fluvia. Bruna Berto, mother of one of the students at this centre, decided to settle in Palau de Santa Eulalia in 2022, precisely because there was a school. I feel that he is “paying for himself” and that it is “unacceptable” for the government to open a school that a few years ago was supported “by a mayoral volunteer.”
Mireia Belapart, the director who opened the centre, now finds herself working painfully to finalize “a personal project, based on grassroots and participation, to be like a car school.” Regarding Alcalde’s decision, he says: “Everyone has an idea about the city that begins with its politics.”
Xavier Baldrich won the 2023 marches by two votes under the abbreviations Agrupació d’Electors de Palau de Santa Eulàlia. He confirms that upon entering the building, one does not expect to find an amount of 124,000 euros, which exceeds 50% of the normal estimate, or about 200,000 euros, and that “it is not accurate, but rather a structural deficit, which increases every year by about 30,000 euros.” “We had to write a new sanitation plan for 2024-2027, and we found ourselves having to cut services and increase taxes. We cut extracurriculars, eliminated administration, and reduced cleaning services.”
Thanks to the advance of two annual contributions from the Ministry’s cooperation funds of €35,000 (which must be returned), and an exceptional contribution from the government, they can close 2024 with a positive residual of €85,000. The mayor confirms that before making the closure decision, he intended for the state to bear part of the cost, 25 thousand euros. But when they realize that’s not possible, they choose to ask for the stone, “something not easy, and not pleasant,” so they stay. His predecessor, Xavier Camps, a former ERC calf, reduced the cost to €10,000.
Camps criticizes his successor’s decision and says that the rural school project should be based “on the idea that it contributes in the future that more families want to go and live in the municipality and find roots.” When the school opened, three families with two children arrived in Pueblo and made sure there were no more students from Pueblo “because they had spent years saying they were closing,” he recalls. “It is worse than school, if we lose it, we lose the soul and losing the soul means death,” concludes Exalcalde.
The Ministry of Education argues that the building belongs to the municipality, and if Ayuntamiento does not want to surrender anymore, “the administration is obliged to close the service.” However, the Alcalde and Ixalcalde admit that the renunciation of the Finca was indefinite. Asymismo, Educación gives hierro of decision and ensures that only the students are in the pueblo and the rest guarantees education in other centers.
The families do not see this as a solution, and confirm that the school in the old town, Garrigas, where he took his children to the mayor, is “collapsed.” In Palau de Santa Eulalia, there are new school-age children, but the majority of them go to schools in the old towns, “those because their priests want to be the ones who declare mayor for many years and others because they chose to educate them,” as confirmed by the Family Association (AFA) there.
The AFA condemns the unilateral decision “without anyone informing the target of its approval” and believes that it is a political and personal decision of the mayor. “Closing a rural school does not mean wasting money, it means condemning a village to disappear,” she supported many families who had dropped out in the past few years. They explained that they chose this center “because it is an educational project rooted in the village and in nature.” “It would be a shame if I had the unfortunate honor of being the only mayor to call for a school fire,” one priest concludes.
The school is located in a two-storey building of 210 m², where there is also a social couple, and where a whole series of activities are organised, such as private yoga lessons. Baldrich confirms that his intention is to move here to the current Ayuntamiento, which was recently rehabilitated, next to the medical office.
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