A parent of a child at the school in Gościszów contacted the istotne.pl editorial office on October 4. The person described how they see the situation at the school: new headmistress Aneta Polak is harassing teachers, which is having a negative effect on the children.
When we asked the parent for contact details for the teachers and secretary whom they described as being mistreated by the headmistress, they replied that all the teachers were reluctant to speak publicly about the matter.
Apparently, however, the parents decided to publicize the story, and it was reported. In the information that appeared in the media, none of the teachers actually spoke out. The matter was described exactly as the parent presented it.
We contacted headmistress Aneta Polak, who described the matter to us, but after several hours refused to authorize her statements. She said that she was no longer interested in describing the situation at the school.
Her earlier statement suggested that she was certain the school was functioning very well and that the inspection being conducted by the education authority would be favorable to it, that the mayor would not dismiss her, and that the whole matter would gradually die down. Polak is convinced that the former headmistress, together with the staff and parents, are making things difficult for her. To this end, they are mobilizing the Parents’ Council and the teachers. According to information from Aneta Polak, one of the teachers is allegedly the instigator of the entire campaign.
Supporters of Relich make no secret of their hostility toward Aneta Polak. On its social media profile, the Klub Radnych Rady Miejskiej w Nowogrodźcu Współpraca i Doświadczenie addressed the matter of the school in Gościszów. The club wrote that Joanna Świder, whom it calls the “tsarina”:
Does not accept the fact that her acquaintance, whom she hired as headmistress of the school in Gościszów, has not been accepted by the Teaching Council. The headmistress, with the help of the “Tsarina” and her “page,” is introducing a new regime: accusing the teaching staff of taking documents out of the school, ordering employees to come to work while on sick leave, harassing them with phone calls and text messages while they are on vacation, accusing the Teaching Council of attacking the headmistress, ignoring the Parents’ Council and the parents of children attending the school, intimidating teachers and threatening them with dismissal, failure to manage the convening and canceling of Teaching Council meetings, failure to assign break-time duties, which meant support staff performed them until September 23, 2024, lack of classes in Librus—lessons have not been entered in the electronic register for all teachers, disregarding the Teaching Council’s powers when giving opinions on the Mayor’s and Headmistress’s awards, and ordering the preschool class to be moved within three days without first preparing the room, including fire doors, an emergency exit, floor area and toilets.
The information we gathered points to an interesting situation in which politics and the Relich–Świder conflict are generating discord in Nowogrodziec Municipality. A person closely associated with local-government circles in Nowogrodziec commented on the conflict as follows: “Teresa Kida was Relich’s headmistress and may not have wanted to work under the new mayor. Society is polarized throughout the municipality. This is deliberate confusion. It is meant to serve someone, but not Nowogrodziec Municipality—it serves politics, and at a higher level,” said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.
The commentator suggests that the conflict between Świder and Relich is merely a smokescreen serving to politically destabilize the municipality in order to install a new leader there. The source believes this could be someone from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, and that there are in fact no major differences between Nowogrodziec’s former and current mayors.
Information about the conflict in the municipality is also being shared on the social media page of the Nowogrodziec branch of Koalicja Obywatelska. It contains strong criticism of current Mayor Joanna Świder.
“I would like to address the relationship between the councilors and the newly elected mayor,” says Leszek Socha of the Veto association. “It is a repeat performance—‘performance’ in quotation marks. Is that what this is all about? And where, in all of this, are Nowogrodziec Municipality and its interests? I was one of the people who shaped the current mayor’s candidacy, and I know what we discussed: matters concerning the development of Nowogrodziec Municipality. Somehow that has been lost in this dispute. I am still looking out for bicycle paths, sidewalks and good roads, because these stimulate the economy. Focus on that. We discussed supporting local entrepreneurs. Economic zones exist, but they may not remain. We must care for small and medium-sized businesses. A municipality with such potential deserves a leader. I do not want this conflict. Think about where Nowogrodziec Municipality is in all this animosity,” comments Leszek Socha.