The Regional Secretary for Education and Training challenged today all Azorean schools to increasingly become educational centres open to the community, thus encouraging new collaborative partnerships with the society.
“The school has to be an educational centre open to the community, not only in terms of sports venues,” stated Lina Mendes, during the presentation of the previous study of the auditorium for the Santa Maria Basic and Secondary Education, a “modern and bold” infrastructure, with a capacity for 250 people.
According to the Secretary, it is “a dream that is becoming a reality” and a work that will be another evidence of the educational policies that have been developed in the Azores over the last years.
The auditorium project, presented by the architect Fernando Monteiro from the office M arquitectos, contains rooms designed for drama and music, working offices, dressing rooms, box rooms, a foyer, a parking lot with 18 spaces and a 720 m2 square with the traditional Portuguese pavement.
The future auditorium of the Santa Maria Basic and Secondary School, with rounded shapes, and located in a land annexed to the school will have a gross construction area of 1,820 m2.
It is the first infrastructure of this type to be built on Santa Maria Island that in addition to qualify the school will be open to the community, main with exhibition of films.
This possibility will fill the gap created on the island with the closing of the cinema at the airport.
After the completion of the previous study, the project will have to be approved by various entities, such as the Vila Porto Town Hall, before its implementation.
For Lina Mendes, who estimates the start of the works by the end of 2010, this investment is integrated in the Government’s commitment to modernise and renew the Azorean schools, an ambitions that now reaches Santa Maria.
Under the statutory visit to Santa Maria, the Regional Secretariat for Education and Training met with the executive bodies of the Sanat Maria Basic and Education School this morning to exchange opinions on the school and on the start of the school year.