In Austevoll municipality in Vestland, around 40 pupils at Storebø school have had barracks school for a year and a half. The indoor climate in the barracks is not approved, and the health authorities have given advance notice of the closure of the building. – This is not sustainable, and I do not want any children to be taught under such conditions, says the head of FAU at the school, Patrycja Sæle. The barracks have been here for about a year and a half. They were not of the quality that the municipality expected. Now a new process is underway. Photo: Leif Rune Løland Got bad barracks The problem started back in 2016. Storebø school had then just finished expanding to accommodate the number of pupils there. But in the same year the politicians decided to close Trolandshamar school on Hundvåkøy. 100 pupils were then transferred to Storebø school, which was therefore full again. Further development was planned. – Quite early on I got a signal that the school was too small, says mayor of Austevoll municipality Morten Storebø (H). Last year, the two seventh-graders were placed on a barracks rig at the school. The mayor believes the situation is unfortunate. – These barracks have not had the quality I expected, he says. Student council leader Mikkel Hatlevik says that they are often tired and tired in the head from bad air. Photo: Leif Rune Løland Has hidden the toilet Inside the barracks, the roof is low and there is not enough space. – We quickly get tired and tired in the head, says student council leader Mikkel Hatlevik. He is in the 7th grade who has been given a place in the barrack rig. Elsewhere in the school, all possible rooms are used for teaching. In the main building, head of department Tomas Reikvam shows news a cramped copy room with no windows. It is used as a group room. There is barely enough room for the chairs around the four desks. Storebø school is one of two children’s schools in Austevoll municipality. Photo: Leif Rune Løland Another room has been used for Norwegian education for four foreign-language pupils. Books and other learning materials lie on a large changing table next to a sink. On the other wall is a large and strange box made of plywood. He pushes Reikvam aside and shows what the box hides. – There is actually a bathroom there, says Reikvam. – This was actually a toilet? – This was actually a treatment room for students who need special care. But there is no space for that now, so we will use it for a group room to have space for all the students who will have their offers, says Reikvam. Head of department at Storebø school, Tomas Reikvam, says that the facilities in the barrack rig are far from good enough. Photo: Leif Rune Løland Must have a tender process The mayor admits that the planning in connection with the school closure, expansion and relocation was not good enough. A new tender process was started, and the hope was to have a solution ready before the new year. But barracks for school use are not an off-the-shelf item, according to Storebø, and therefore the solution was further away than they hoped for. – Now the plan is to get new barracks in place from next school year. The challenge is to balance the rush with requirements for tender processes, and to do it properly, says Storebø. Furthermore, the plan is for new buildings to be completed and the barracks replaced in 2025. Pupils at Storebu school. Photo: Leif Rune Løland Money is not a problem Austevoll is a rich fishing municipality, and both millionaires and billionaires have addresses there. Among those who live there is Helge Olav Møgster. He is on Kapital’s list of the 400 richest in Norway. The mayor is clear that money is not a major problem in the municipal economy. But that this case is about bad planning, bad barracks, and requirements for a tender process. – Austevoll municipality has good finances, and the board this week has agreed to allow 125 million for the expansion of the school, says the mayor. They will today carry out CO₂ measurement of the indoor climate in the barrack rig to meet the demand from the health authorities. – We are working to close the gap, he says. Bjørn Kristian Bjånesøy, head of education, sits in the municipality’s administration. He was previously headmaster at Storebø school. – I have to admit that I was a little startled myself when I saw how it was, says Bjånesøy. He says that they still haven’t really started planning what will come out in the end. Namely, a permanent extension of Storebø school, without barracks. – The situation now is not good. But we also want to ensure that what we are doing with the expansion is something that can stand for a long time, says the headmaster. Patrycja Sæle is head of FAU at Storebø school. She has had enough of the relationship at school. Photo: Leif Rune Løland
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The barracks at Storebø school are cramped and hazardous to health – news Vestland
