The plan is to build an elementary school with four classes for over 400 pupils at the Wiesenstrasse site, as well as a 2-group daycare center with an additional crèche group.
At the ground-breaking ceremony, Mayor Frank Klingebiel was delighted to say: "Salzgitter has been on the move in terms of education for many years. We have exempted nursery fees since 2008. The state then followed suit. We have launched a comprehensive school renovation program and created around 1,000 new daycare places in our city. We are currently in the fast lane: the groundbreaking ceremony for the Brotweg daycare center in Thiede in June 2023, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lichtenberg daycare center and elementary school in November 2023, the groundbreaking ceremony for the North elementary school in January and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wiesenstraße daycare center and elementary school today. We can only achieve these ambitious construction projects in the education sector with the financial support of the state. Keyword: This comes from the 50 million euros of the Salzgitterhilfe structural aid program, which I raised together with our member of state parliament Stefan Klein. The construction costs here for the elementary school are around 24.4 million euros, of which around 17.3 million euros are being funded by the state through the structural aid program. The construction costs for the daycare center amount to around 6.1 million euros. 3.6 million euros of this is also being funded by the state through the Salzgitterhilfe program."
Astrid Paus from the Office for Regional State Development emphasizes the state funding: "50 million in structural aid for Salzgitter - that was a lot of convincing, but it's worth it: Salzgitter has considerable challenges. As a state, we are supporting the city with the structural aid in order to realize a modern daycare and school landscape in the city and to promote integration in daycare centers and schools. It's great that the ground-breaking ceremony is now underway in Salzgitter-Bad."
Stefan Klein, First Mayor and Member of Parliament, adds: "The structural aid was necessary because we have a great need. It is now being invested extremely wisely here."
Andreas Triebe, Mayor of the village of Süd, was also on site. He said: "Now it's time to implement this important measure for the future of our district and I am very pleased about the official start of construction today. A modern, child-friendly campus is being created here, just as many parents in Salzgitter-Bad would like it to be."
The elementary school and daycare center are scheduled to open on 30.06.2025. This will be followed by the construction of an additional sports hall at the site, which is expected to go into operation a year later. The construction project will be realized around the existing buildings. Georg-Michael Freiwald, the project manager from the building management, purchasing and logistics company, therefore thanked Bettina Buttke, principal of the Altstadt elementary school, for her trusting cooperation on the construction site. She was delighted with the start of construction: "What takes a long time will finally be good. Now the time has come. The work on the new elementary school fills me and my colleagues with great joy."
