The Formentera Council's education department reports that this summer crews performed maintenance tasks and upgrades across the island's three public schools, or CEIPs (for “Early-learning and Primary Education Centre”)—Mestre Lluís Andreu and in Sant Ferran and la Mola—plus at the CEP, the local teachers' resource centre.

Education secretary Susana Labrador pointed out that “every year the summer holiday is our chance to respond to requests from school administrations, parent/teacher associations and student body groups. It's how we managed to ensure proper maintenance in time for the start of classes this Wednesday”.

Upgrades
Sant Francesc
At the lower Mestre Lluís Andreu building the Formentera Council maintenance brigade repainted exterior walls, hung tiles in the inner playground, cleaned the area around a boiler and painted and covered an existing metal structure to create a shaded area.

An outside contractor grouted a leaky hallway, painted the school's right wing and performed touchups of the left wing for €5,047 total.

The brigade carried out regular maintenance on the school's upper building, including painting a host of spaces inside and out.

Sant Ferran
At the Sant Ferran school crews fashioned a new shaded area out of wood and wattle in the space that lies between the portable classrooms and the sport pitch. A new intercom was also installed and one classroom's leaky ceiling was fixed.

Some work—including cleaning, removal of the previous coat of paint and application of a fresh one—was farmed out to outside firms at a cost of €9,922.

La Mola
Aside from conducting a general revision of the school's interior and exterior paint jobs, crews replaced the wooden parts of a spinning toy located outside, revised the window of the portable classroom and repaired the track of the sliding glass door with entry to the primary students' classroom.

For €5,552 an outside firm was brought in to assemble two new air conditioners and instal five taps.

Teachers' resource centre
Two outside firms were enlisted to reform the CEP's exterior woodwork and paint job, operations which cost €18,600. That work was in addition to earlier repairs of the historic building's tile roofing, rainwater harvesting system and façade.

The total price tag for the maintenance and upgrades across Formentera's educational centres was approximately €40,000.

The education secretary noted that “during the school term two crew members are responsible for attending to any maintenance needs that may arise at the island's three early-learning and primary schools”.

Along with work at schools, crews also made use of the August holiday to conduct reforms of the bottom lobby of the Marià Villangómez library and music and dance school. Efforts included cleaning and repainting walls and switching out flooring at a cost of €9,000.

The departments of culture and patrimony of the Formentera Council are teaming up with the small and medium-sized business group of Eivissa and Formentera, PIMEF, to present a course on restoring wood in traditional architecture.

Conceived for the range of professionals typically enlisted in reforms of architectural features at cultural heritage sites (architects, building engineers, builders, carpinters and restoration specialists), the course begins with a deep-dive into theory before moving on to practical matters covering everything from the characteristics of wood materials to common problems and potential remedies.

Course instructor Marisa Justo graduated with bachelor's in art history, obtained certification in restoration practices and holds a master's in rehabilitating architectural heritage sites. The 20 hours of instructional time will take place afternoons from 4.00 to 8.00pm. The course is free and registration will be conducted through PIMEF.

Wooden roofs, a signature element of traditional architecture on Formentera, often require cleaning, treatment and other maintenance to restore pieces that are still able to exercise a structural function. The Council's cultural heritage department believes in training islanders employed professionally in the construction industry, because these will later be the ones enlisted to carry out works projects on historic buildings.

Training on the techniques and materials used in traditional architecture is encompassed in Formentera's cultural heritage management plan for 2017-2019, adopted by the plenary assembly of the Formentera Council and in effect today.