The Escola Básica Rainha Santa Isabel, in Campo de Ourique, Lisbon, will be closed on Monday for safety reasons, following electrical problems caused by the lack of rainwater drainagesaid this Saturday, November 15th, the Parents Association.
Mafalda Ambrósio, from the Parents’ Association, explained that the school building, in monoblocks, which has been temporary since 2021, was closed on Friday, because persistent rain caused the fire alarms to go off when the children were having lunch in the cafeteria, making it impossible to turn off the alarms without turning off the electrical panel, so parents were asked to pick up their children.
“We had information that the firefighters were there and that they indicated that, for safety reasons, the school will not open until the works are carried out. For now, it is known that on Monday the children will not have school”, he informed, stressing that he does not believe that interventions will be carried out during the weekend, so the school may be closed for more days.
According to the parents, this situation is due to the fact that, “despite repeated warnings, the City Council and the Parish Council of Campo de Ourique completely failed to fulfill their responsibilities with the maintenance of the long-temporary facilities”.
“What really worries us here is all the negligence that happened, because this could have been avoided if the monoblocks were properly maintained. And then there is a shift in responsibilities, in which it is the responsibility of the Chamber or the responsibility of the Board, and never no one really takes responsibility for having 160 children in a schoolwho have to be safe, and who have to have the conditions for a healthy and normal school year”, he considered.
The school, in monoblocks, has been temporary since 2021 and the approximately 160 students should have started this school year in the original building, on Rua de Santa Quitéria, which began construction five years ago, but that did not happen.
According to the Parents’ Association, the monoblocks are “under pressure and showing some wear and tear and very little maintenance” and the situation “started to worsen in February last year, when a lot of water started to enter, making it difficult to use one of the Nursery Garden rooms”.
“At that point, the children had to go to a room the school has, which is the teachers’ room, until the matter was resolved,” he said.
However, this autumn a lot of water entered the school again, resulting in the realization that the pipes that were installed to drain the water were not large enough, meaning that another intervention was necessary.
According to this person in charge, the Council had asked the Board to clean the downspouts and the entire roof to allow the pipes to be fully functioning and the Board cleaned all the roofs, except for the gym and the support room, precisely where Friday’s rains caused the entry of water that led to this entire problem.
Regarding the original school, where they should have moved at the beginning of the school year, after works carried out by the SRU (municipal urban rehabilitation company), the parents say they have “absolutely no information”.
“There is no information on when it will open, as it was scheduled to open in September, then the last information we had was that the work would end in December this year, but, the last time I spoke to the SRU engineer, I was no longer able to confirm this information and it was also no longer certain whether we would move in at Easter”, he said, highlighting that the group also says it has no further information.
The school has two kindergarten classes and five first cycle classes.