Belfort City Hall opposes the new school plan and makes it public. The mayor of Belfort threatens on Wednesday, April 10, to remove schools from the Cité scolaire system, in response to the cancellation of several classes in the department at the beginning of the school year 2024. In total, fourteen classes in the first level are closing and five are opening. A negative balance of 9 positions, confirmed by DASEN (Director of the Academic Service for National Education in the Department), due to a drop in student numbers.
Integrated system in 2022
“This decision is unacceptable, says Belfort Mayor Damien Meslot in a press release (read below). “Departmental services for national education make decisions that are not in accordance with the interests of educational institutions or with the announcements made by the Government”. a few weeks ago that education will be the ‘mother of government battles’ and that he intends to ‘rearm the school'”, Damien Meslot points out.
Mayor Belfort is threatening not to renew the contract that unites the state, city and national education. A “Tripartite Agreement” with a budget of 900,000 euros over three years, signed in 2022, which must provide resources to schools and support educational projects in the city’s policy priority districts (QPV).
“Of the nine class closures (for the 2024 school year), seven are in Education City, although the schools in question should be a priority for the city of Belfort to hire human resources as part of this system during which the state decides to eliminate 9 teaching positions,” continues Damien Meslot.
“Double punishment for families”
For Peggy Goepfert, FSU 90 union office member and Education City member school principal Damien Meslot, “knows very well that with the budget we have, there won’t be classes opening until September.” She sees this announcement as an “escape from the educational city”. She worries about the consequences of such an exit: “It’s a double whammy for families in these neighborhoods who are fortunate enough to benefit from special projects with colossal budgets.”
The threat will not change the mind of the academic administration. Mariane Tanzi, DASEN of Territoire de Belfort, does not plan to cancel the closure of the nine classes planned for the start of the school year in 2024, “unless the number of students increases by then”, she specifies. Attention will be paid to the next school year. In DASEN, however, they are surprised by the council’s decision, and assure that communication with the mayor will “continue” regarding the educational city.