The teacher Martina Pillath usually stands in front of children. Not this time. Pillath stands at the microphone at a committee meeting and speaks to people who have long since left school. “Too many children commute from Poing to the surrounding high schools, which are totally overcrowded,” she says. Pillath makes a plea for the early construction of a high school in the municipality of Poing, where she herself works at the elementary school. She has many contacts with her former students, who are now high school commuters. “We have a lot of children who are waiting and hoping that something will happen.”
The district of Ebersberg is to get a fifth high school, that has long been decided. It’s just a question of when. The district council had recently downgraded the construction project in terms of urgency and put it on the waiting list. At the same time, the interest group “Gymnasium Poing now” got together and started a petition. According to the municipality, 1800 signed there. In the meantime, the initiators have developed the petition into a resolution. “We ask that the whole thing does not remain a number on paper, but that the parents and especially the children are given a sign that progress is being made.”
The situation in Poing in figures: This was announced by Poing’s mayor Thomas Stark (independent) in the meeting room of the district and strategy committee. In 2020, 1694 high school age students were counted in Poing. According to the population forecast, this number will rise to 1,904 students by 2024 and to 2,100 by 2033. The return to the nine-stage G9 high school “will take full effect in 2025/26,” says Stark. His outlook: “The situation in the north of the district, especially in Markt Schwaben and Vaterstetten, will continue to worsen without the construction of the Poing Gymnasium.” If planning were to start this year, “construction would start in 2025 at the earliest.” The new school could then go into operation in the 2027/28 school year.
“It’s all planned for the first half of the year”
Not only children and young people in Poing would benefit, but also in the neighboring communities. For example in Pliening and its Landsham district, as Mayor Stark explained. The construction of such a school in Poing would also have a relieving effect on the grammar schools in Grafing and Kirchseeon.
The initiators of the petition are now formulating three central requests to the district council: Prioritizing the finances for the school and including the construction in the 2022 budget. The “immediate start of implementation planning and the start of construction in 2022” and a feasibility analysis of an accelerated start.
District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) explained that the municipality of Poing had “proposed a free piece of land” on which the school could be built. The municipal council of Poing must agree to the key points before this so-called property transfer application can be submitted to the district and strategy committee. The paper then goes on to the notary before it is again presented to the Ebersberg district council. Niedergesäß: “It’s all planned for the first half of the year.”
The Poinger municipal council is advising on the possible number of parking spaces and the option of an underground car park – “because that can be a small financial adjustment screw,” said the district administrator. There is currently talk of a triple gymnasium, with a quadruple gymnasium the community would have to participate. Otherwise, the school is a district task and compulsory task. The administration in the real estate office is preparing the award of the feasibility study, “so that we can hopefully award it in a short time”. Results are expected in the fall and October meeting.