The old Teaching School is located in a privileged place in Valencia, facing the garden of the Turia River, an urban park like a green thorn that crosses the city and where a river once flowed which overflowed from time to time and caused the terrible flood of 1957. “The flood arrived here. »
Since Monday, this university school with a view of what was once a hidden river has turned around and been “rejuvenated” to accommodate the nearly 500 students of the Lluís Vives primary school in Massanassa (10,000 inhabitants), declared in danger of collapse and whose structure killed a worker that the Generalitat had sent last Sunday to carry out cleaning tasks.
“Today was a day of reunion and happy, but also bittersweet because of the worker who died in our school,” says its director, Salva Crespo, who temporarily set up his “desk” on a few tables at the entrance to resolve doubts and problems and be in sight. “In a few days we will go to the theater.” Salva is easy to find, also for parents, students and his team.
In the entrance hall of the Magisterium – a serious building with concrete walls, very high ceilings and red aluminum details – a few days ago, someone secretly hung posters that screamed with childish colors and capital letters “Benvinguts” and “Benvingudes”. The teachers brought them with happiness and betrayal so that this Monday the students could find them at the entrance, on their first day of school since October 29.
They also hung colorful banners in the hallways. “We are transforming everything little by little, we feel lucky to have the whole school in the same space.” The first plans were to spread the classes across several reception centers in other towns near Massanassa, but eventually the University of Valencia gave them this huge space to set up their 22 groups – Lluís Vives is one of the largest elementary schools at Ground Zero.
The little ones paint sitting on their little chairs, small groups that get lost in infinite spaces. Other older children visit the center with their guardians as tour guides. In the meeting room, hundreds of boxes of books, games and school supplies. “There are ten centers here, the solidarity has been incredible,” says Crespo, showing boxes filled with markers, toys, books to classify and even computers on loan.
This Monday, there are calls, meetings and negotiations between teachers and the management team. They are happy because the children will have a dining room, after having carried out some small jobs in the cafeteria which previously housed cups of coffee and plates of sandwiches for the twenty-year-olds. “They had to adapt the waste circuit and also made modifications to be able to connect the refrigerators and dishwashers. They worked on Saturday and Sunday.” Everything went well, but while waiting for the kitchen to be ready, this Thursday is a picnic today.
They also had to make safety adaptations: there are stairs, guardrails and heights designed for adults, but not for children under 1.50 meters tall. “The response from the Prevention of the University of Valencia, from the director of the Faculty, from the vice-rector… It was incredible.” University students who were studying the Master of Teaching there which allows them to teach in secondary schools have left and are receiving online courses until December, like all campuses after DANA. From there, UV will look for other locations for its university students, so that the children of Lluís Vives can complete their courses in the same place. From September 2025, CEIP Lluís Vives is expected to move to Massanassa, in prefabricated classrooms on land made available pending the reconstruction of its school.
“Everything went well, in the chaotic situation we live in,” Crespo says, as his team runs up and down the stairs and corridors. The children have been without routine or school for almost a month. With parents caring for them and trying to clean and run errands, many leave them to family or friends. “We have students who have experienced things that a child should never have experienced, like being swept away by a current with your father and saving yourself at the last moment thanks to neighbors who caught you.” There are also teachers and workers affected by the floods. It is for this reason that in this public center they have activated an emotional action plan with the Department.
“The first thing we did after the flood was to call the families to find out what had happened, if there had been any deaths, if they had accommodation or what the alert needs were. social services”, says the director, who remembers the joy of the children when he spoke on the phone with his teachers for the first time. “Now we are in the second phase, that of receiving the students and allowing them to express themselves, because surely they have not said anything yet. They found themselves in extreme situations, let’s see if little by little we can help them.”
In the hall, the little students gather around their teacher who, shiny silver microphone in hand, explains to them what their new school will be. Some joke, others admit that when they went to the bathroom, they made “a mess.” The team of officials who achieved this miracle of normality quickly say goodbye at the door because there are many things to do today. They also lost the equipment from the previous school, everything, they only managed to keep the most valuable items under lock and key on the first floor “to prevent theft”. Yet, like so many people at Ground Zero, they feel “lucky.”
At five o’clock in the afternoon, the ten buses that dropped off the 470 children of Lluís Vives de Massanassa will pick them up at the gates of the old bed of the Valencia River which, when it was diverted after the 1957 flood, served barrier and left the capital intact during this brutal DANA while the other side drowned.
They will ride with the adrenaline of the new and arrive in Massanassa, about 15 minutes away, where their families will wait for them at the foot of the stairs and ask them how the first day of school of this new era, 2024, is going. AD, I left. D, after DANA. They will tell you that the school is huge, but they have a school. Even if the weather is nice, they will put on their rain boots and walk through the remaining mud to have a snack at home. See you tomorrow.
