At a City Council session, a vote was held on the amount of fees for municipal kindergartens. Eight councillors voted against it (including the entire Civic Platform club), while eight supported the increases. The resolution was therefore not adopted. Another session will be scheduled in July or at the beginning of August, at which the councillors will decide on the amount of the fees again.
City Secretary, Jerzy Zieliński, ironically congratulated the councillors who voted against the increase on their good feeling. “In this matter, what is important is not to look good on television. The most important thing now is how you will take care of seven important municipal institutions,” he told the councillors Jerzy Zieliński.
Until now, parents paid approximately 150 zł for kindergarten (excluding meals); after the increase, they will pay approximately 215 zł. In municipal kindergartens, a child is guaranteed a nine-hour stay. The municipal authority pays for five hours, while parents pay for the remaining four hours. Since 2009, the rate per hour has been 1.80 zł; from September, it is to increase to 2.63 zł. The increase will average 65 zł per month.
Beata Sulska, head of the Social Affairs Department, explained that the increase in fees for services at municipal kindergartens was prompted by the nationwide increase in teachers’ salaries introduced by the Minister of National Education.
“This is a problem for all municipalities in Poland,” Beata Sulska said. “The increases vary depending on the municipality; we are somewhere in the middle. Employing teachers is the municipality’s own responsibility. The ministry raises salaries, and the municipality has to find the money for the increases.”
At the session, Jerzy Zieliński explained that the proposed increase would not even cover the rise in teachers’ salaries. “The increase will only alleviate the expenses incurred by the city budget for these pay rises. The monthly revenue to the city treasury will be around 60,000 zł,” the secretary explained. “You will still have to give the matter serious consideration and find funds to operate the municipal kindergartens.”
The city secretary warned the councillors of legal consequences if they did not adopt the resolution before 1 August. “Time is needed to publish the resolution in the Official Journal, and the new fees must apply from 1 September,” Zieliński appealed to the councillors. “If we do not do this, we will find ourselves in a legal vacuum. This will make it impossible to regulate either the duration of free classes or the amount of fees for services provided in municipal public kindergartens beyond the period of free classes.”
Ziemia Bolesławiecka councillor, Zdzisław Abramowicz, replied that councillors could not be put with their backs to the wall and forced to act under pressure. “A vote should be a matter of choice, not coercion,” he told the secretary. “If necessary, we will meet once more. The matter can be analysed again and other solutions proposed.”
The Civic Platform club agreed with Abramowicz. “We will vote against it,” said Mirosław Sakowski. “The increase places too much of a burden on families; perhaps it should be spread out into instalments?” the councillor suggested.
The city mayor will presumably submit a motion to convene another session in order to regulate the resolution before 1 September.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)