Dear Parents,

The following statement has been forwarded to the European Schools' Board of Governors on 15 April 2015:

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A full year has passed since representatives of the parents and management of the European school in Frankfurt were given the opportunity to address the BoG in Sofia on the serious problems that the ESF is facing due to the fact that the host country – Germany – has not fulfilled its contractual obligations towards the school.

After that meeting the German Delegation invited all stakeholders to a meeting in Berlin in April 2014. A lot of promises were made in Berlin and all stakeholders left feeling optimistic. However, up to now there has still been very little change in Germany’s attitude towards the ESF.

In September 2014 the Parents’ Association, with the support of the ECB, had to provide classrooms and premises for the whole Pre-Primary school (a total of 9 classes were required in September 2014). Without this solution, the ESF would have been the first school in 61 years of the European School systems’ history unable to enrol all entitled children, thus refusing admission to a number of category 1 students.

Now at the beginning of this week, a new childminding building belonging to the Parents’ Association was opened at the ESF. This new temporary building will host the Pre-Primary and P1 classes in the mornings and the childminding and afternoon activities in the afternoons.

With the temporary solutions provided by the Parents’ Association, with the support of the ECB, a number of classrooms in the ESF were made available in September 2014 to be transformed into urgently needed lab-rooms for the Secondary school. This was an opportunity for the host country to deliver on its commitment towards the European School, but Germany failed again to meet its obligations. Instead of a fast and focused approach, Germany has been delaying the implementation of solutions for the Secondary school students by continuously raising questions relating to what needed to be provided by the host country in addition to the initial package. Surprisingly, the host country insists that tables and chairs for the students in the new classrooms/laboratories are not in the package that should be supplied to meet the current school population’s requirements

Concerning the longer-term solution for the ESF, unfortunately, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. A meeting scheduled for 3 March 2015 in Berlin, where the feasibility study was due to be presented to all stakeholders, did not take place and a new date was never set.

To summarise, Germany has managed to waste another year in a very urgent situation. Only the pro-activeness of the Parents’ Association and the ECB ensured that the 2014/2015 school year did not commence disastrously at the ESF.

The Frankfurt Parents’ Association is once again seeking the support of the BoG in reminding Germany as the host country of the ESF that the prospects of the development of the ECB over the next years clearly indicate that there is no time to waste in providing suitable long term infrastructure if the European School System wishes to succeed in providing adequate schooling in a professional school environment for the eligible children in Frankfurt.