The IES Menéndez Pelayo in Getafe has closed one of the centre’s buildings, the old IES Silverio Lanza, due to the continued absence of heating, a situation that should have been temporary, but has not yet been resolved. This building, built more than 50 years ago with temporary barracks-type materials, has very poor thermal insulation, according to center staff, which has made its use unsustainable with the arrival of winter and the drop in temperatures.
Although the Community of Madrid assured last Friday that the only thing missing was the visit of the gas company’s technician for the heating to start working “in the coming days”, the center’s management has chosen to close the building for the moment. and reorganize its more than a thousand students in other classrooms. According to a worker, the Silverio Lanza space has only been used since Monday as a transit point for high school students to go out to the patio. “Right now there is only one person there who controls this, and he has to be with a radiator,” he laments.
The lack of heating in the building is due to the renovation of the old diesel boiler, which had not been changed since the center was founded. Although the installation works were completed in November, the connection to the gas supply, which depends on the Territorial Area Directorate of the Ministry of Education, remains incomplete. The temperatures recorded in the classrooms have turned the situation into an urgent problem.
When they enter class, at 8 in the morning, the thermometer reads 12 °C, as workers from the institute have shown to this newspaper. Two hours later, with the effect of human heat from students and teachers, temperatures rise to 14ºC around 10:00. Throughout the morning, the atmosphere warms up slightly, and with luck it reaches 17ºC, the legal minimum for working in educational centers. However, this temperature does not allow the normal development of the day, the teachers say.
“They teach with coats, gloves and they even bring blankets. Even I myself have brought blankets from my house to give to the children,” says a teacher at the center. Between the cold and the fact that they spend most of the morning sitting, students and teachers are left chilled, he adds.
For the moment, the uncertainty continues, and both students and teachers at IES Menéndez Pelayo hope for a quick solution to be able to resume their classes in decent conditions. The center’s management did not want to answer the questions from this newspaper.
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