Record pupil numbers in Poschiavo push municipality toward single school hub

The school year began on 17 August for most schools in Italian-speaking Graubünden; in the Moesano region, classes resume on 24 August. In Poschiavo, this year's novelty is demographic: the 2016 baby boom has produced 51 pupils in fourth grade, a number that forced the Santa Maria school to carve out a new ground-floor classroom to fit everyone in.

The move, driven by urgency, reopens a broader question: the future of the municipality's school buildings. The five buildings that house pupils from San Carlo to Le Prese show their age and no longer meet the needs of current teaching methods, particularly the Piano di studio 21 (PS21) curriculum. The programme, phased in gradually since the 2018-19 school year, favours a skills-based approach and has introduced areas such as media and computing, career orientation and education for sustainable development, while encouraging interdisciplinary work among teachers. That requires more flexible spaces, suited to group work and the use of digital tools.

"Il comune di Poschiavo nei prossimi anni, volente o nolente, dovrà investire 12 milioni di franchi per l'istituto scolastico di Santa Maria. A questo punto la questione è: con le sedi esterne facciamo gli stessi investimenti, che sono comunque necessari, o creiamo una sede scolastica unica per il comune di Poschiavo a Santa Maria?" ("In the coming years, whether it wants to or not, the municipality of Poschiavo will have to invest 12 million francs in the Santa Maria school. The question now is: do we make the same investments, which are necessary anyway, at the outlying sites, or do we create a single school site for the municipality of Poschiavo in Santa Maria?"), Michel Castelli, of Poschiavo's infrastructure department, told RSI's Il Quotidiano.

One hub, but a costlier one

A preliminary study, presented by Fabio Zanetti of the school board, outlines what the new school hub could look like: new buildings for kindergarten, nursery, extra classrooms, the gym, civil defence, shelters, the assembly hall and after-school facilities. Renovating the scattered sites would cost less than the centralised option, but according to Zanetti, "bisogna anche mettere in conto i benefici che questo progetto centrale potrebbe avere" ("the benefits this central project could bring must also be factored in"), starting with savings on pupil transport.

Among the advantages cited is also closer collaboration among teaching staff. "Questo permetterebbe ai docenti di comunicare tra loro velocemente, di programmare insieme, di creare attività condivise. Da un punto di vista delle risorse umane sarebbe un buon cambiamento, con meno spostamenti da una sede all'altra e meno tempi morti" ("This would let teachers communicate with each other quickly, plan together, and create shared activities. From a human resources standpoint it would be a good change, with fewer moves between sites and less dead time"), said Sabina Paganini, Poschiavo's head of schools.

Investment in a single hub could reach 30 million francs and would be carried out in stages; the municipal legislature already authorised a prefinancing of 5 million francs in June. What remains unclear is how the costs will be spread over time, and what the shift from neighbourhood schools to a single hub would mean for families in the hamlets furthest from Santa Maria, in terms of children's travel time and the future of the outlying villages.