The school building is brand new – and is consistently praised for its aesthetics and practicality. Nevertheless, in a few days, Rector Carolin Friedl will tick three boxes that the first school year in the modern extension of the elementary school in Jagdfeld was survived without any major accidents. Because, as it has now turned out, one of the large, heavy windows could have tilted out of its anchorage and fallen on a child at any time if the load was correspondingly high. There have been two incidents in which fortunately nothing worse happened. The municipality of Haar then took a closer look and now feels compelled to take safety measures at short notice: belts are attached. And then around 100 windows have to be fitted with new fittings. The anger is great.
When Mayor Andreas Bukowski (CSU) spoke to the municipal council’s building committee on Tuesday evening about the still incomplete construction site in Jagdfeld, the question quickly arose as to whether schoolchildren were at risk. Dietrich Keymer (CSU) repeatedly asked and urged an independent expert to be involved and insurance issues to be clarified. The clarification of the background to the building shortage is made more difficult by the insolvency of the company, which was announced on July 8th by the district court of Nuremberg. In any case, this much is already clear: Fittings were installed that did not meet the standard required by the order. Principal Carolin Friedl did not want to comment on the process when asked. It’s about technical issues, she said, which educators can’t adequately assess.
The whole thing was blown up by the two incidents, after which the windows were at least crooked on their hinges. Mayor Bukowski explained that in one case an “assembly error” was the cause. The other time it was about “improper use”. Apparently a child hung itself on the window sash when it was opened, which can of course happen in a school. According to Bukowski, the fittings used meet the required standard. No defect can be seen with the naked eye. But because of the two near-accidents, the matter was investigated and discovered that material of inferior quality had been used. Reimar Pfalz, head of the construction technology department in the building authority, reported specifically about a “window hinge breakage”. The window “was about to fall off its hinges”.
The municipality has engaged its lawyer. It’s about compensation and more
The municipality has hired a lawyer to claim damages and clarify further questions. Because it is also about whether students were negligently endangered and whether someone should have noticed it earlier. In response to a corresponding question from Peter Schiessl (SPD), Reimar Pfalz referred to the external construction supervision, which had actually been installed specifically for the large-scale project at the Jagdfeld elementary school. The lawyer for the community will also deal with the question of whether these omissions can be blamed, said Pfalz. Most recently, there had been trouble in the community because the building inspector had only reported additional construction costs of around one million euros when the school had been in operation for months.
For the time being, belts should prevent the windows in the classrooms from being tilted too far.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
As far as costs are concerned, things have calmed down a bit recently. After a special meeting of the municipal council was initially in the room, the situation calmed down again. The differences were largely cleared up at a jour fixe, said Bukowski. The construction costs are now estimated at 40.2 million euros. 39 million euros are planned for financial resources in the budget. It is still unclear how much the trouble with the windows will cost the community as the client. In any case, Dietrich Keymer, who is a lawyer himself, warned the building authority against being overly optimistic about hoping for anything from an insolvent company.
According to the town hall, the agreement that children are not allowed to sit in the swiveling circle of the windows when they are open has been in force so far. Mayor Bukowski promised to have the windows secured with belts at short notice so that a certain angle of inclination can no longer be exceeded. Safety measures are scheduled to begin this Saturday. A TÜV expert will visit the school next week. After the summer holidays, the windows at the school will probably have to be removed step by step, the hinges replaced and the windows installed again while the school is running. It was considered to approach the classroom by classroom, said Pfalz. The respective classes could switch to a temporarily used room on a daily basis. In any case, due to the short time available, it will not be possible to complete the work during the holidays. The trade has to be advertised and craftsmen are known to be difficult to come by at the moment.