The Getafe City Council will build a second nursery school in the Los Molinos neighbourhood with its own funds and demands that the Community of Madrid authorise a comprehensive educational model for ages 0 to 16 with direct management and labour guarantees.
The mayor of Getafe, Sara Hernández, has urged the Education Minister, Mercedes Zarzalejo, to ensure that the new municipal Nursery School in Los Molinos is managed directly and integrated into a pilot project that combines education from ages 0 to 16. The proposal, presented at a recent meeting, aims for the centre to be linked to the CEIPSO Miguel de Cervantes, located on the same adjoining plot.
A pioneering educational model in the region
Hernández explained that the goal is for Los Molinos to host a public pilot project that allows students to complete their entire compulsory education at the same centre. “We want the new nursery school to join the current Miguel de Cervantes school to offer a continuous model from the earliest months to secondary education,” she stated. The mayor insisted that this system must guarantee the labour rights of professionals, something she considers incompatible with the outsourced hiring model imposed by the Community of Madrid.
The mayor recalled that early childhood education in the region is currently on strike precisely due to poor working conditions stemming from indirect management. For this reason, Getafe advocates a 100% public model, as it already implemented in its first municipal nursery schools, being a pioneer in the Community of Madrid.
The City Council takes on construction with its own funds
The Getafe City Council will fully finance the construction of this second nursery school in Los Molinos, just as it did with the first, which ended up becoming the CEIPSO Miguel de Cervantes by decision of the previous PP government. Hernández criticised that the previous local government “gave away” the centre to the Community of Madrid to alleviate the lack of educational foresight in a young and rapidly growing neighbourhood, without the regional government covering the costs.
Now, the City Council's Plenary has already approved the detailed study for the new school, which will be located on a plot adjacent to the CEIPSO Miguel de Cervantes. This proximity is key to developing the ambitious continuous educational model from ages 0 to 16, which would allow public families to enjoy schooling without changing schools.
The battle for direct management
Getafe defends direct management as the only way to ensure decent working conditions. The City Council reminds that it recently tendered a new contract for the Municipal School Arcoíris, in Buenavista, worth more than 30,000 euros above the agreement, to improve both the number of professionals and their salaries. However, the imposition by the Community of Madrid forced the management to be outsourced to a private company.
Hernández described the regional government's stance as “caciquil attitudes” and warned that she will not allow this to happen in Los Molinos. “Early childhood education cannot depend on a hiring model that undermines workers,” she asserted. The mayor demands that the new school be a model of quality public management.
For the families of Getafe, this demand represents a unique opportunity. If the project goes ahead, the residents of Los Molinos could have an educational centre that supports their children from nursery to secondary school, something that currently does not exist in the area. “It is a historic demand of the neighbourhood,” municipal sources assert.
The Education Minister, Mercedes Zarzalejo, has not yet responded to the proposal, but the City Council expects a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the unblocking of the new institute in Buenavista and the future of Los Molinos. Getafe hopes that the Community of Madrid will respond to a request that, according to the City Council, would benefit hundreds of families and improve educational quality in the southern area of the region.
Meanwhile, the City Council continues with the urban planning procedures for the new nursery school, which will be ready within two years if the necessary authorisations are obtained. The residents of Los Molinos, with a young and growing population, hope that this time the regional administration will not hinder a project they consider key to the development of the neighbourhood.
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