In Koltsovo, a scandal erupted over admission to a prestigious school. Parents say that they specially bought apartments in specific buildings so that the children would go to a temporary IT lyceum
In the science city Koltsovo near Novosibirsk, parents of schoolchildren are at war with the local administration. At the end of January, officials signed a new decree, according to which 11 houses were detached from the new Technopolis school. Residents of these high-rise buildings say that they specially bought apartments here so that the children would go to a modern IT-lyceum.
And now they feel cheated. Parents are also worried that the short way to another school lies through a deserted forest and park, and the long way takes more than a kilometer, although the same Technopolis can be seen from the windows of their apartments. The administration explains that this is a compulsory measure, and the houses were unfastened, because they are going to build a new school. NGS correspondent Alexandra Brunya spoke with both sides of the conflict and studied the documents.
The ill-fated ruling
The long-awaited Technopolis school was opened in Koltsovo last winter. More than a billion rubles were spent on the construction of a modern lyceum.
The building of the lyceum consists of two blocks and a basement floor — it includes a gym, a shooting gallery, a ski storage room, bathrooms and showers, a nurse’s post, a gymnastics hall, changing rooms and a swimming pool.
At the end of January 2021, the local administration suddenly issued decree No. 55 «On assigning educational organizations to specific territories of the Koltsovo working village.» In this document, 11 buildings have disappeared from the list of houses from which children were supposed to go to Technopolis. Houses were detached on Nikolsky Prospekt Street, No. 10, 12, the odd side of Voznesenskaya, the odd side of Rassvetnaya. Now children from these houses have to go to Lyceum No. 21. Parents do not agree with this decision of the authorities.
«Now you need to go around half the village or go through the forest»
Julia Dortman is one of the activists and a resident of the house on Rassvetnaya Street, which was detached from Technopolis. The woman has repeatedly filed complaints with the prosecutor’s office, Rospotrebnadzor, the Ministry of Education of the Novosibirsk region and the village administration, but has not yet been able to achieve the cancellation of the decision (the answers of the departments are at the disposal of the editorial office).
— My child needs to go to school in two years, but if you don’t get involved in solving the problem now, it will only get worse. This year, they began to change the resolution smoothly: first, unpinning some, then others. And the final decision appeared when we could not do anything. School enrollment will begin on 1 April. And for example, our house and the neighboring one, which were detached in January, began to receive replies from the prosecutor’s office and Rospotrebnadzor only now. Our neighbors, who were unassigned in March, are still at the stage of only the first appeal, ”says Julia Dortman.
Now the initiative group includes 10 people, but the outraged, according to the Siberian woman, are much more.
— The village bends, and in the center there is a small forest that flows into the Koltsovo park. The school, to which our house and the neighboring one are now attached, is located in the northeast of the village. To get there, you have to go around half the village or go through the forest. And not so long ago there were several stories with pedophiles who tried to drag children into the forest. And it is understandable that people are afraid to send children through the forest. But SanPiN is not interested in the trajectory and the actual distance that the children will walk, they are only interested in the radius — so that it is no more than 800 meters, — the woman is indignant.
From January 2021, new sanitary rules of SP 2.4.3648–20 “Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the organizations of education and training, recreation and health improvement of children and youth” came into force. Clause 2.1.2 says that “the distance from organizations that implement programs of preschool, primary general, basic general and secondary general education, to residential buildings should be no more than 500 meters, in conditions of cramped urban development and hard-to-reach areas — 800 meters, for rural settlements — up to 1 kilometer ”.
As a result, according to the SanPiN standards, after the new decree, only two of the excluded houses do not pass.
— And so it turns out that people moved to Koltsovo, hoping that there are very good conditions for children. And in many ways this is true. But it turned out that people moved and bought quite expensive real estate here, but it is not clear why they overpaid. The child will go through the whole village, and children from Akademgorodok and Pervomaika are going to this beautiful new school, which everyone was counting on and waiting for, ”says Yulia Dortman. — And this outrages a lot of people.
Brothers and sisters got the upper hand
Residents of Koltsovo faced another problem. According to the new rules, sisters and brothers of school students can study here — they are considered a preferential category. That is, the school is obliged to provide them with a place, as well as those who are attached to it.
— When the school opened, the middle and lower grades were transferred from two other schools, where children with various residence permits studied throughout the village. And since 2019, the legislation has been changed, and now the brothers and sisters of students have the right of preferential admission to this school. Even in front of those who live in the microsite. At a meeting with us, the headmaster of the school said that they planned to recruit 100 first-graders, and about 60 went on a brother-sister benefit. It turns out that there are 40 places for children with registration, and games with the sale of registrations begin. And for honest people who just bought apartments and live in them, there is no room left in the school. And then the municipality starts playing checkers and sawing around the house.
According to Julia Dortman, there are a lot of people who want to get into Technopolis, but the institution refuses to introduce a second shift.
— They explain this by the fact that such training should be eliminated by 2025. But up to this point there are four years! On the other hand, they absolutely do not hesitate to say that if the second shift is opened, then they will have classes for additional education. As far as I understand, not only sections within the school are held there. Someone rents a gym, so there are no places for physical education on the second shift.
The local residents are also unhappy with the fact that the house on Rassvetnaya Street was not detached from the school, where the head of the education department of the Koltsovo Science City Administration Oksana Gregul lives, who, among other things, made the decision on Technopolis.
How children will go to school now
We have marked the houses on the map, which, according to the new decree, are distributed among schools (see below). At the same time, the document stating that the residential complex «Spectr» no longer belongs to «Technopolis» is not posted on the administration’s website.
We also calculated the approximate distance that the schoolchildren who were detached from the Technopolis would have to walk.
The path suggested by the administration is marked in red. He walks through the forest, which doubly resent his parents. The approximate distance is 870 meters.
Blue — the path that the children had to go to the Technopolis. It is about 580 meters.
Purple on the map depicts the path along which, most likely, schoolchildren will go to Lyceum No. 21, if they are obedient and do not go through the forest and park. Distance — 1.3 kilometers.
How many vacant places in Koltsovo schools
The administration of the working village provided up-to-date information on the occupancy of local schools. Koltsovskaya school No. 5 works partly in two shifts, and the other two — in one.
The maximum capacity of work in one shift for school No. 5 is 900 students, for Lyceum No. 21 — 950, and for Technopolis — 1350. At the same time, according to the construction project, the Lyceum was supposed to accept only 1050 people, but its indicators could be increased according to the SanPiN standards …
«We build and give birth a lot.» What else do officials say
The head of the village, Nikolai Krasnikov, confirms that there really is a conflict and the administration was forced to detach some of the houses from the school.
— We built a new school when our other two were already overcrowded. And everyone wanted to get into it. We have a tense demography — we build and give birth a lot, but we have to react to the situation, taking into account the fact that we need to move to new standards and move away from the second shift to additional education that needs to be organized at schools. For first-graders, already last year we had to adjust the recruitment. Two schools are empty, and this one is overcrowded. We are forced to act within our powers, — explains the head of the village. “We sent the most distant districts from Technopolis to Lyceum No. 21, and made a new pedestrian crossing. We are not introducing a second shift, and at the same time we retain the opportunity for children to receive free additional education. For the liquidation of the second shift, we were allocated money for Technopolis.
He assured that the houses, which have now been detached from Technopolis, will be in priority for a new, fourth school (the administration of the workers’ settlement is now «knocking out» funding for it). In 2020 alone, there were 500 more schoolchildren in Koltsovo, so the construction of an educational institution in the 5th micro-district, according to him, is practically a resolved issue. Now the site is being prepared and the project is being finalized.
The head of the education department of the administration of the Koltsovo science city, Oksana Gregul, told the NGS correspondent that she was aware of the claims against her because of the house where she lives (he remained attached to Technopolis). According to the official, her older child goes to another school, which will go to the younger one, so she did not pursue any personal interests.
The administration confirmed that initially children were enrolled in Technopolis not only by registration, but also at will. And they added that there will be no graduation classes at the school in the next three years, and if you leave all previously attached houses, you will have to introduce a second shift.
“At that time, there was no overriding right to enroll siblings. But admission to the first grade at a new school in the summer of 2020 was carried out taking into account the consolidation of the territory (residence on it) and taking into account the new norm — the enrollment of brothers and sisters in one educational organization. The school does not have the opportunity to accept everyone, ”the administration said. — Now only in the first grades, according to the preliminary forecast, at least 500 children will be enrolled. That is why, when preparing a decree on the consolidation of territories for the 2021-2022 academic year, taking into account the planned occupancy of the new school, available vacancies in two other schools, available equipment, staff,
The administration confirms that the decree on the distribution of houses among schools may change, so buying an apartment in another house is not a guarantee that the child will go to Technopolis.
What is offered to disgruntled residents
Nikolay Krasnikov said that a decision had already been made — in order to level the conflict, on the basis of the new kindergarten «Golden Key», the administration will open the first class for children from houses that are detached from «Technopolis», as well as the residential complex «Spectrum». Classes will be taught by teachers of Lyceum No. 21. But residents do not believe in the success of this initiative. According to them, such an option is unlikely, because the kindergarten itself needs premises for its pupils.
The problem of overcrowded schools has long been acute in Novosibirsk. In December, the NHS told about the cramped conditions in which children study at school No. 36. Instead of desks, they put chairs in front of the students, since due to the lack of classrooms and furniture, lessons have to be conducted in a choreography class. Later, the NGS journalist visited several overcrowded schools in the city — for more details, see this report.
On February 10, a large school with three gyms was opened in the Yuzhno-Chemsky residential area. Look in our photo essay how modern schools turn out.
