Maçanet de la Selva has activated the campaign "We want the Institute now!" to demand from the Department of Education the immediate unblocking of the project and the construction of the new institute, a demand that comes after more than fifteen years of provisionality in barracks and five years after the municipal transfer of the land for the future center.
The initiative has been promoted by the municipal political groups, the associative fabric, and the citizenry of the municipality. The municipal plenary also unanimously approved an institutional motion to reinforce the claim before the Generalitat, with the support of all opposition groups to the local government.
A shared claim in the municipality
The campaign is promoted by the Municipal School Council with the support of the City Council, of the educational centers, of the local entities, of families, students and former administrations. The objective is to pressure for a project to be reactivated that the municipality considers urgent due to the situation of the current high school.
The motion warns of a situation that the municipality considers unsustainable, with a center that continues to operate in barracks and with part of the equipment distributed in three different points. This dispersion forces the teaching staff to move from one space to another during the day.
The Councilor for Education, Rosa Cases, defended in the extraordinary plenary session that the construction of the new institute "is urgent" due to a chronic precariousness for years.
"On January 9, 2025, she received the mayor and myself and informed us that until 2031 the department's budget was all mortgaged" - Rosa Cases, Councilor for Education
That message confirmed to the City Council that there is no project underway and that, at least for now, it is not planned before 2031. Given this scenario, the motion asks to reconsider that deadline, urgently unblock the drafting of the project and include in the Generalitat's budgets the necessary allocation to build the new institute.
A process initiated in 2009
The mayor, Natàlia Figueras, placed the origin of this journey in 2009, when the Vidreres institute was collapsed and the creation of the Maçanet de la Selva institute was proposed, which began its activity in barracks.
Figueras recalled that in 2015, during the conversations with Educació about the location, it was decided to place it next to the Arrels school with the idea of accelerating the process and lowering costs.
"We do procedures and it spends more than 150,000 euros on projects" - Natàlia Figueras, mayor
That location, however, was discarded by Civil Protection upon being found less than 500 meters from the highway. Afterwards, a new location was chosen on land designated as equipment in the Vellabista urbanization.
In 2021 the City Council handed over the plot with all the required conditions to build the center. That same year, the Department announced that Maçanet de la Selva was the municipality "first positioned in the Girona regions and among the first seven in Catalonia" to carry out the project.
The mayor stated in the plenary session that for years the idea was conveyed to the council that procedures were being carried out and that the construction was planned.
"We are deceived" - Natàlia Figueras, mayor
Talks and an open meeting at the Municipal Library
The approved motion adopts the roadmap of actions proposed by the Taula de treball per l"Institut within the framework of the Municipal School Council. Among the planned measures are informative talks and protest days to maintain institutional and social pressure.
The first meeting open to all citizens has been called for Thursday, April 9 at 6:00 p.m. in the Municipal Library. The call is addressed to residents, students, families and future generations of Maçanet de la Selva, in an attempt to broaden local mobilization to demand that the new institute stop being blocked and move from paper to construction.