School

The after-school care center in volkach, housed in the monastery st. Maria in the rooms of the girls’ secondary school, continues to grow.

Two years ago, the city recognized a need for 115 places, but due to the current rough demand, this number will grow to 125 as of the coming school year. But the city council had to decide on the recognition of the increased need, which was done unanimously after a short debate.

"The after-school care center is a splendid facility," said mayor peter kornell in praise of the center at the meeting on monday evening, "the fact that it exists is a blessing, the staff is very well trained in education and does a really great job."

The number of students at the schools in the district’s responsibility for the subject matter remains constant only at the vocational school center. As the head of the department, achim geyer, reported at yesterday’s meeting of the school and social committee, there has been a clear downward trend at the other secondary institutions for years.

They are a reflection of the number of births in recent years, which have also been declining steadily, geyer said. Drastic is the development at the middle schools, the realschule and the two gymnasiums in kulmbach. On the other hand, he described the figures at the vocational school center as absolutely pleasing: "they are stable, that is due to the positive mix of teaching professions."

Fewer professional drivers

District administrator klaus peter sollner agreed: "the numbers are very positive. If you see them in context with other vocational schools in upper franconia, they are even outstanding." Only in the training profession "professional driver" observe a downturn.

Although the number of unemployed was 39,000 higher than in june for seasonal reasons, it was 43,000 lower than a year ago, the federal employment agency (BA) reported. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 6.6 percent in july. Without the seasonal effects, which were usually more pronounced in july, the number of unemployed would have fallen by 12,000.

BA head frank-jurgen weise expressed satisfaction: "the labor market is stable overall."He blamed the slight increase in july solely on seasonal factors. On the one hand, many companies postponed hiring until the fall during the vacation months. On the other hand, significantly more young people than usual registered as temporarily unemployed after completing school or vocational training. "In the fall, youth unemployment will again decline significantly."

For the second half of the year, weise does not expect any improvement on the labor market, "but also no deterioration. In his opinion, the escalating conflict between the west and russia in the wake of the ukraine crisis could not change this. He is well aware that this crisis is unsettling export-oriented companies in particular, said weise – for example, mechanical engineering, but now also consumer-oriented sectors. "But i don’t see that this is already having an impact on the labor market."

The new district administration office cost almost 40 million euros. For the district, the attractive administrative building was previously regarded as a historically rude building investment. So far. For almost 55 million euros are now planned for a new building of the grammar school in spardorf. Of this, about 18 million euros came from the free state of bavaria.

On thursday, the district council gave an important signal in a joint meeting of the school and building committees. They rejected a renovation of the existing building and unanimously favored a new building. Ultimately, however, the district council still has to decide.

Redevelopment almost as expensive

Yesterday's decision in favor of a new building was based on the structural and cost-engineering calculations of the district's master builder, thomas lux. The variants had been examined meticulously. Conclusion: a refurbishment and extension would "only" cost 52.5 million euros, taking into account the additional space required, barrier-free access and modern energy efficiency two million euros cheaper.

The district of forchheim invites tenders for the cleaning of eight school buildings and four administrative buildings. One of the two bosses of the management consulting company "concept 2", on monday, heiko ebert presented the more than 18-page performance specification and the procedure. Tenders will be invited throughout europe this week. "Nowadays it is not easy to find cleaners. In some regions, companies no longer submit bids at all. But here I am confident", ebert emphasized.

Until 19. June the six to eight most suitable cleaning companies are selected. On 24. A mandatory site inspection will take place in july: representatives of the company and those responsible will look at the herder grammar school, the pestalozzi school, the district administration office, the vocational school center and the frankische schweiz grammar school in ebermannstadt.

The cleaning companies submit their bids, which are then evaluated according to several criteria. The most important criteria are price and performance (i.E., how many square meters per hour do the companies charge for cleaning). The companies will not be awarded a contract until mid-september. "In the end, a decision is made for the most legally secure – not the cheapest – offer", so ebert.

After the corona-related school closure, educational institutions throughout germany had to move classes home. At the vocational school center in kronach, the staff very quickly succeeded in creating a new everyday teaching routine by means of a comprehensive digital learning program.

"Our teachers have done a great job in the past weeks", rudi schirmer, head of the vocational school, and ursula lieb, a member of the school’s administrative staff. Already on the weekend after the school closing, teachers came together to find solutions for the continuation of the lessons through home-learning.

In order to quickly and securely manage the transition to distance learning and the establishment of a digital learning platform, schools can use microsoft’s office 365. At the lorenz-kaim school, this was already introduced in february 2019, so that they were prepared for such a crisis situation. IT system administrator stefan konig quickly succeeded in setting up the necessary communication structures and making teaching materials available to the schoolchildren. All classes received a link or QR code to a password-protected area where they can access the folders they have been given access to.