“The children say it makes them sick.” This is how the mother of a kindergarten student summarizes the “serious situation of dirt” accumulated by the CEIP Maestro José Fuentes, in East Seville. “It smells bad, the trash cans are not collected, the floor is dirty and so are the bathrooms,” he tells SevillaelDiario.es, hours before picking up the mop to stand at the school doors along with other families who demand a solution for this center. of around 900 Kindergarten and Primary students.
The problem that has led this group of mothers and fathers to call a protest this Wednesday afternoon goes back months. Although the families noticed the lack of cleanliness at the beginning of October – seeing that “there was more dirt in the classes” and that the minors were carrying at home “that they were holding in their pee because the bathrooms are disgusting” – the management team He explained to them that the center had been suffering from a staff shortage since the end of last year. A situation that became complicated after the holidays.
Since then, the management of the CEIP Maestro José Fuentes and the families themselves have been demanding resources from the Seville City Council (as the administration responsible for the maintenance of public schools), since of the seven cleaners assigned to the center, in May there were four – as the workers themselves denounced – and the course started with three.
The management of the center confirms to this newspaper that it is in talks with the City Council to find solutions, but has declined to delve into the issue, insisting that it will inform the educational community of the progress that is being made. Local government sources assure, for their part, that, as of this Monday, the school has five cleaners in total, making it “one of the schools that has the most cleaning staff” in the capital. In addition, it is reported that the municipal delegate of Education, Blanca Gastalver, visited the school this Tuesday to find out its situation, precisely the day before the demonstration that the families have called.
Fed up with waiting
Given “the lack of effective and urgent solutions” that they had been demanding for weeks, the AMPA board of directors sent a statement to the families in mid-October, proposing that “each class designate volunteers to participate in a cleaning day that we will organize soon” mode of “demanding action”, as its president explained to this newspaper. However, the association of mothers and fathers of the students has decided to suspend the mobilizations until the meeting they have already arranged with those responsible for the City Council is held.
That is the reason why the AMPA has disassociated itself from this Wednesday’s rally, organized by a group of families on their own initiative. “Tired of waiting,” at least 23 families have decided to go to the doors of the center this Wednesday with cleaning products to make visible “the anger and discontent” that they have been carrying for weeks.
“We are not convinced about waiting to see the results of the meeting with the City Council,” explains a mother who regrets that the Preschool and Primary students have been living daily with the garbage that accumulates on the floor, with remains of feces, for too many weeks. in the bathrooms and with the stench given off by the trash cans where the garbage accumulates. “The children say that it disgusts them because it smells like pee and poop, the trash cans are not collected, it smells bad, everything is filled with papers, it is not collected, it is not cleaned; Until there is a child who catches an infection, they will not realize the seriousness of the problem,” he emphasizes.
The Seville City Council confirms that the maintenance problem in this school in Seville East “takes time.” At least since May, the reduction in the workforce of cleaners had been reported on social media. According to what the families have learned, after the lack of cleaning there is a labor conflict between the workers themselves and the local administration.
Until now, the City Council has offered as a solution to complement the cleaning of the school with Lipasam work groups that would come to clean the playground on weekends, as was done a few weeks ago. However, families consider that they are “insufficient” measures, to the extent that they do not cover the cleaning of the infant classrooms or the interior of the main building.
Beyond the CEIP Maestro José Fuentes
The “despair” of the mothers and fathers who have organized this protest act at Maestro José Fuentes is also shared by families from other schools in the capital, such as the CEIP San Pablo, which is also considering mobilizations. This center located in the San Pablo district has been without custodial staff for almost a month and for more than a year suffering the ravages of the storm that hit the province in October of 2023.
That episode caused a piece of the roof of the Children’s building to fall off and it has not yet been fixed. “At any moment it will fall,” fears Ada Iglesias, the president of the AMPA of this Sevillian center. “There is humidity, leaks, the concrete patios are cracking everywhere,” describes this mother, dragging concern in her words.
“The school should be the children’s second home and, at the very least, a safe place, but we are suffering from total neglect on the part of an administration that keeps repeating that schools are a priority, but has not carried out a single action.” only action in our center and it does not even carry out the minimum and essential maintenance of a building under municipal responsibility,” deplores Ada Iglesias, who remembers that the families of the CEIP San Pablo had to get “to work” last year when they saw that the weeds were growing uncontrolled in the center and the City Council technicians did not come to clear the brush.
Federation support
These two schools in the city have the support of FAMPA Sevilla, an organization that also announces that it is going to take action “because it is already unsustainable,” as stated by the vice president of FAMPA Sevilla, Rocío Begínez. “Our demands as families are not met, there is a lack of cleaning and porter staff because sick leave or retirements are not covered and the management team has to open and close doors,” he points out.
Despite the fact that José Luis Sanz’s team announced a shock cleaning plan in public centers in February, “the current state of schools continues to be regrettable,” as stated by the representative of the federation of mothers and fathers associations in the city of Seville. “The centers are suffering deterioration that is a consequence of neglect for many years, but this Government team has been asking us for patience for a year, talking about inheritance received and without executing a concrete or ambitious plan that solves the maintenance and cleaning problems,” he asserts. Beginez.
For all these reasons, families from CEIP Maestro José Fuentes have taken the initiative to protest this Wednesday to make visible a problem that resonates in other public schools.
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