Padenghe Begins Construction of New Nursery School to Support Child Development
The countdown has begun in Padenghe sul Garda for the construction of the municipal nursery school. For several days now, excavators and bulldozers have been working in the area designated by the Municipal Administration led by Giancarlo Allegri, for the new construction of this nursery, which has been a topic of discussion over the past 10-12 years. A back-and-forth of proposals, requests, and clarifications had resulted in an endless delay of a decision that should have been firm and decisive.
Broken free from all hesitation, following the confirmation last December by representatives of the Zinelli Nursery School not to cooperate with the municipal administration, Mayor Allegri, trusting in his promise made during the electoral campaign to find a definitive solution to the nursery school case, decided to proceed independently in solving the problem.
Project details and progress of works
Therefore, a new project and a loan approval from the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti of about 3 billion lire, and recent awarding of the contract for the works, out of 13 bidders, to the Pasquali SPA company of Calcinato. Work has also started immediately to take advantage of the summer holidays, so as not to disturb students with the noise of the machinery.
The completion time is 360 days starting from August 1st. A structure built entirely by the Municipal Administration, at a cost of 3 billion lire, to which additional funds will be added for interior furnishings, and therefore considered a Public Works project. In short, if everything proceeds as planned, the new building should be accessible by the next school year 2002/2003.
Approximately 1,500 square meters of surface area for the new facility with a lake view, spread over two floors. The basement will host the cafeteria (160 sqm), the kitchen (160 sqm), storage rooms, offices, and a psychomotricity room (160 sqm).
The upper floor will have six classrooms, each for a different class section measuring 67 sqm, all with private bathrooms, an office, and a staff room. The project was designed by the Ribelli studio, architects Alfio Ribelli and Roberto Gussago, while the site supervision will be managed by the Municipal Technical Office.
For interior painting, an innovative technique by Rudolf Steiner will be used. Even for management, everything is yet to be defined; “surely,” says Mayor Allegri, “it will not be municipal.”
Once again, as with the awarding of contracts, various proposals will be analyzed, and the best will be chosen— the one capable of providing the best service at a fair price.
Educational objectives and features of the new building
The design of the new building took into account numerous factors related to the needs of the child user, who is defined as a “subject of rights” by the guidelines set out by D.M. of 198_, as a person entitled to education, training, and respect for individual, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious identity, to improve quality of life.
“Meeting essential needs (eating, sleeping, etc.), developing one’s personality,” explain the officials of the Public Education Department of the Comune di Padenghe, “are the goals of the child; the educational process occurs through the meeting of innate tendencies in the child with his natural environment.”
The environment encompasses everything surrounding the child—the people, animals, objects with which he interacts, and the places where his activities and experiences take place. The nursery school is the first extrafamilial environment the child encounters.
Within the school system, it contributes to the process of shaping the child’s personality during the age period from three to six years. It develops abilities to communicate, think, and express oneself, promoting harmonious growth of cognitive, affective, social, and moral components of personality, aiming to provide all children with equal educational opportunities.