In September 2021, in the middle of the pandemic and after half a century closed, Palau de Santa Eulàlia, a small municipality of 130 inhabitants in (Girona), reopened its doors. Five years later, the center because the mayor, Xavier Baldrich, assures that he cannot maintain it and wants to recover the building to move the City Hall there. The decision has divided the town; teachers and families at the center reject it, while the Department of Education accepts it.
The Les Curculles rural school has 18 students, 11 of which come from neighboring towns such as Siurana d’Empordà, Saus, Bàscara, Santa Llogaia d’Alguema or Torroella de Fluvià. Bruna Berto, mother of two students at this center, decided to settle in Palau de Santa Eulàlia in 2022, precisely because of the existence of a school. He feels that they are “taking away a right” and sees it as “inadmissible” that the Government closes a school that he supported a few years ago “at the will of a mayor.”
Mireia Bellapart, the director who opened the center, is now forced, with sadness, to finalize a “becoming a driving force as a school.” Regarding the mayor’s decision, he states: “Everyone has an idea of the town and from there they make their policy.”
Xavier Baldrich won the 2023 elections by two votes under the acronym of Agrupació d’Electors de Palau de Santa Eulàlia. He assures that upon becoming mayor they did not expect to find a hole of 124,000 euros, which exceeds 50% of the regular budget, of about 200,000 euros, and that “it is not punctual, but rather a structural deficit, which increased by about 30,000 euros each year.” “We had to draft a new sanitation plan for 2024-2027, and we were forced to cut services and raise taxes. We cut extracurricular activities, we dispensed with administrative work and we reduced the cleaning service,” he says.
Thanks to the advance of two annual payments from the Provincial Council’s cooperation funds worth 35,000 euros (which must be returned), and an exceptional contribution from the Government, they were able to close 2024 with a positive remainder of 85,000 euros. The mayor assures that, before making the decision to close, they tried to get the Generalitat to assume part of the cost, 25,000 euros. But upon realizing that it was not going to be possible, they decided to request closure, “something that is not easy or pleasant,” he maintains. His predecessor, the former mayor of ERC, Xavier Camps, lowers the cost to 10,000 euros.
Camps criticizes his successor’s decision and defends that the project for a rural school should be based “on the idea that it contributes to more families opting to go live in the municipality and put down roots in the future.” He remembers that, when the school opened, three families with two children each came to town and assures that there are no more students from the town “because they have been saying for years that they are going to close.” “It is more than a school,” concludes the former mayor.
The Department of Education argues that the building is municipal and, if the City Council no longer wants to give it up, “the Department is forced to close the service.” However, the mayor and former mayor admit that the transfer of the property was indefinite. Likewise, Education downplays the decision and assures that only two students are from the town and the rest are guaranteed schooling in other centers.
The families do not see it as a solution and assure that in the neighboring town, Garrigàs, where the mayor took his children, the school “is collapsed.” In Palau de Santa Eulàlia there are nine children of school age, but the majority go to schools in neighboring towns, “some because their parents want the closure that the mayor has been announcing for years and others because they fear it and have chosen to send them to school outside,” say the family association (AFA) of the school.
The AFA denounces a unilateral decision, “without any objective report to support it” and believes that it is a political and personal decision of the mayor. “Closing a rural school is not saving money, it is condemning a town to disappear,” said several families last Wednesday, after classes. They explain that they chose this center “because it is an educational project rooted in the town, in nature.” One of the parents concludes: “I would be ashamed to have the unfortunate honor of being the only mayor to ask for the closure of a school.”
The school is located in a two-story building of 210 square meters, where the social center is also located, and where a whole series of activities are organized, such as private yoga classes. Baldrich assures that his intention is to move the current City Hall here, recently renovated, next to the doctor’s office.
