Volzhsky Students to Attend Third School Over Repair Delays

The major repair of School No. 13 in Volzhsky (Volgograd Oblast, Russia), which began at the end of 2023, is seriously behind schedule. According to the plan, the work was supposed to be completed by March 2025, but the educational process in the building has not yet been restored.

Parents whose children are temporarily studying at School No. 1 reported on the situation. This educational institution is also closing for major repairs from February 1, which exacerbates the problem.

In the published video address, parents of School No. 13 students stated: «Our school was closed for repairs three years ago. All students were distributed to other schools in the city. We have a written response from the education committee, which states that our children will study during the repair of the building in Schools No. 1 and No. 2. We accepted this situation with understanding.

To date, it is the third academic year that our children are forced to study not in their own school, but in the building of another, temporarily provided, while School No. 13 is under repair. However, now we have been informed that the primary school building is closing for repairs, and all our children are being redistributed to other schools.«

The cost of the major repair of School No. 13 amounted to 114.7 million rubles (about $1.27 million at current rates). The contractor for the contract of 114,737,776 rubles was LLC «OMS» from Stavropol Krai. The work, which began in January 2024, is not completed, and the deadlines have been shifted by almost 10 months. At the same time, in the «Kontur.Fokus» system, it is noted that the contract is considered fulfilled.

For three years, students of School No. 13 have been studying in Schools No. 1 and No. 2. If parents still tolerated the delays in the repair of their home school, the closure of School No. 1 prompted them to public appeal.

«My son is in the fifth grade, my daughter is in the third. And both will be assigned to different schools. Today there will be a meeting to which the director was invited, but that she will come to us — no one believes,» said one of the parents.

School No. 2 will cease operations from February 1, for its restoration a contractor has already been found for the amount of 58.5 million rubles (about $650,000 at current rates). Students of School No. 13 are planned to be transferred to School No. 28, however, parents are opposed due to inconvenient logistics and safety.

«Marshrutkas (minibuses) do not stop within walking distance there. However, there is a semi-destroyed square nearby where it is scary to walk even for adults in the evenings. The school cannot provide a bus either: they said that there simply aren»t any,« they explained.

It was not possible to promptly obtain a comment from the director of School No. 13. Requests asking to explain the reasons for the missed deadlines have been sent to the administration of Volzhsky and the contractor company LLC «OMS».

This is not the first case in the city: since 2023, work has been ongoing on the reconstruction of School No. 32 «Evrika-Razvitiye» (Eureka-Development), which was previously at the center of a corruption scandal related to embezzlement of budget funds.