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The last students' center, which is situated in the district of HBK, street
28 Armiyi is under the thread of being closed. About 150 students from
nearby houses spend their extracurricular time at this center. The last
teacher - the head of this centers was fired on January 31, 2003 due to
cut-back of the budget.
The center is situated on the first floor in the building #5. The building
itself is constructed like a guest-house. Families of 3-4 people live
in the rooms with the area of 6-9 square meters and use joint bathroom,
restroom and kitchen. It is very hard for school students to be inside
such rooms sized 3 to 2 meters, therefore after school they play outside.
Where else could a child from poor family go when he has no idea what
pocket money is? Before January 31 these children came to the students'
center, which is situated on the street 28 Armiyi, where the teacher Stanislava
Podobyeda was waiting for them. On January 28 she came to the editor's
office of our newspaper and asked "don't let them take away something,
that truely belongs to children".
The prehistory.
The students' center was opened in 1978. At that time only two teachers
worked there. It took them years to collect necessary equipment and implements.
Now from 150 to 200 children aged 5 to 16 spend their free time at the
center. The alumni of the center frequently stop by. In 1999 the center
turned 20 years old. The representatives of the HBK and the city mayor
all came to the center for celebration. They said warm words, gave presents
and promised all kinds of support. According to Stanilsva Antonivna, everyone
can find something for them to do at the center. Some students just do
their home assignments, some play ping-pong, some try playing pool at
the old table. There is a small library. The children organize various
contests and disco. They live like one big family. To be exact - they
lived, it was in the past.
There is no present for this center.
After the appointment of Anatoliy Rybachuk for the position of General
Director of open stock company "HBK" the administration made
a decision to shorten expenditures in the budget of the stock company.
One of the decisions was to close all students' centers. They did so.
And the only burden is the center on the street 28 Armiyi.
On October 10, 2002 the administration informed Stanislava Antonivna about
future dismissal in January. But Stanislava Podobyeda desided not to give
up. If she had given up at that point - all of her students would have
been on the street. Before she came to the editor's office she had already
been to four deputies of the city council, twice visited people's deputy
Oleh Bespalov, complained to the exectuve committee of Dniprovsky district…
As the result, her dimissal was postponed for one month, and she was fired
on January 31 instead of December 31. Formally, the center is closed.
But the teacher did not give up - she filed a claim to the local court
of Dniprovsky district and demanded to declare the decision not valid
and give her permission to continue her work. Besides, she asks the court
to prohibit OSV "HBK" any actions at the center before the court
makes its decision.
On Tuesday, February 4th, the representatives of OSC "HBK" intruded
into the center and demanded the keys from this center. Stanislava Antonivna
refused to give them anything and showed the claim, which she had sent
to the court. She said she would not give the keys unless the court obliges
her to do so. There also is the third party in this conflict - city department
of education.
Positions of the parties.
The director of the center for extracurricular education of Dniprovksy
district Iryna Svynarenko tells us, "Two months ago the Dniprovsky
executive committee representative spoke to Mr.Kostyuchok (ex-general
directorof the HBK) and asked him to leave the center for students when
transferring possession of the HBK to the fund of the city executive committee.
But this question remained unsloved. The HBK has no possibility to pay
salary to the teacher of the center, that is why they warned the teacher
about possible dismissal. Besides all that, the city department of education
discussed this issue with the financial department of the executive committee
and the deputy mayor of Sergey Cherevko. All of them studied the possibility
to provide salary to the teacher of the students' center. And the problem
was solved in a positive way - they decided to pay to the full-time teacher
and part-time cleaning lady".
But the salary would be paid only in case, when the center is transferred
to the possession of the city.
The main goal for the OSC "HBK" is to receive maximum profit.
Education, organization of extracurricular time is not the statute activity
of the company. The payment for utilities of the center, salaries for
the teachers is a waste of money, according to the directors of the company.
The head of the City Utilities Service Volodymyr Solovyov comments: "We
are ready to transfer the students' center to the city. But they had not
sent any offers from the city council yet. I had not received a letter
about sub-rent of this center. If they have any offers - I am ready to
consider them".
There is another nuance in this case. The bulding #5, where the center
is, is a part of the statute fund of the OSC "HBK". It means
that the company owns this building and does not have to transfer possession
to the city. Besides, the building can be transferred to the city possession
only after it is given another status. Now it is called a Dormitory of
family type.
As we see, the problem is not simple. And it can be solved only with joint
efforts of city council and the administration of HBK.
Oleksandr Burmagin
To be continued.
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