District renovates Helenental School: School starts after the autumn holidays

The Helenental primary school in Bad Wildungen is currently undergoing extensive renovation at a cost of around nine million euros: In addition to an extension, the building is getting a new foyer that can be connected to the cafeteria and a new entrance on Stresemannstraße. The new premises are to be completed in the coming weeks so that they can be used by the school community at the start of school after the autumn holidays. Together with the mayor of Bad Wildungen, Ralf Gutheil, and employees of the specialist services involved, District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst took a look at the current construction progress during a site visit last week.

Needs-oriented and friendly rooms
As part of the renovation, the building was first completely gutted in summer 2021. The single-storey flat-roofed building attached to the classroom wing, which formerly housed the caretaker's flat and the school administration, was demolished, rebuilt and extended by one storey in timber frame construction. On the upper floor, space is created for the new, needs-oriented and friendly school administration area. A new serving kitchen with dining room is being built on the ground floor. In addition, a glass partition wall will be installed towards the foyer, which can be pushed to the side if necessary and the area can thus be converted into an assembly hall.

Good conditions for a modern teaching and learning environment
Furthermore, all technical equipment will be brought up to the latest state of the art, the layout of the building will be optimised and adapted to the room requirements. New care and differentiation rooms, a music and creative room and a media library, as well as equipping all classes with media columns and presentation technology, will create good conditions for a modern teaching and learning environment, the pedagogical concept and all-day lessons. Almost all areas of the school can be reached barrier-free via a lift. In addition, the school will be accessed via a new representative main entrance from Stresemannstraße. The new schoolyard will also have a small playing field, playgrounds, balancing and climbing facilities and seating stones that invite students to linger and will thus provide the school community with an optimal break arrangement.

One of the two classroom levels as well as the administration and the cafeteria area are already almost ready for occupancy. Partial occupancy of the rooms would therefore already be possible after the summer holidays. However, the upper floor and the entrance area are still being completed. "Together with the school management, we have therefore discussed handing over the building to the school community for use after the autumn holidays, when it is completely finished. This is because construction work parallel to school operations can not only affect lessons, but also the safety of the students. We want to counteract this," says District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst, explaining the further timetable, which had to be adjusted for various reasons. Previously, delivery bottlenecks of materials and limited capacities of service providers had led to short-term delays in the construction progress.

School independent of fossil fuels
In addition, the building project was also significantly influenced by the war-related energy crisis. "Last year, we changed our plans at short notice due to the current developments in energy supply - and switched to air/heat pumps for the school's energy supply. In this way, we will be completely independent of fossil fuels for the building's energy supply in the future," the district administrator continued. The rescheduling during the construction phase did take a little more time. "In view of the energy crisis, however, we had to react flexibly in our planning. But we can now guarantee a sustainable and long-term energy supply for the school.

Schooling in the branch and in the Edertal
During the construction work, classes for the 183 pupils of the Helenentalschule will take place alternatively in the branch of the Schule am Fuchsrain in Bad Wildungen as well as in the nearby Integrated Comprehensive School in the Edertal. "We would like to thank the school community of the IGS Edertal for their flexibility and willingness to accommodate six school classes," emphasises Claudia Frede, head of the building management department. After the autumn holidays, however, all pupils will be able to return to the newly renovated Helenentalschule. Mayor Ralf Gutheil also welcomes the construction measures at the school location: "The Helenental primary school is of particular importance for Bad Wildungen. We therefore welcome the district's investment in the school building and thank the district for the good and trusting cooperation."

Keywords:

Specialist Service Building Management Specialist Service Schools and Education