The education and culture offices of the Formentera Council wish to announce plans to mount a punt de lectura, or “reading corner,” in a storefront it has rented at 13 carrer Mallorca in Sant Ferran. Till recently, the town's library was housed in the same building as the public school, however, the school's burgeoning needs forced the library's closure as the school year started.

The street-level space measures 61.14m² and is currently being outfitted to accommodate the reading corner by November. Education and culture secretary Susana Labrador pointed out that “while the previous building was exclusively a children's library, the new centre will be open to teens and adults, too”. The new library will offer internet and feature a small permanent collection and several rotating selections culled from the Marià Villangómez library in Sant Francesc.

The Formentera Council's education and culture offices wish to announce that from Monday, September 18, the island's two early-childhood education centres, or escoletes, are back in session. The two schools, sa Miranda and Camí Vell, had closed their doors on September 1 for upgrades.

It is back-to-school season for the families of 106 girls and boys on the island; seventy-nine children attend classes at sa Miranda and 27 go to Camí Vell, in 9 classrooms (7 in sa Miranda; 2 in Camí Vell). Esperança Sunyer is the schools' director. She is joined in her work by 18 educators, two kitchen personnel and two cleaning workers.

In all, very child aged two to three who requested a spot received one. There are three newborns and six 1- to 2-year-olds on the waiting list.

Upgrades
In the first half of September, crews carried out €56,000 in upgrades at the two escoletes. Sa Miranda had humidity problems, grounds were refitted and new drywall installed in four rooms, improvements were made on one walkway and an access ramp was put in for deliveries.

At l'Escoleta del Camí Vell, various upgrades were carried out. Humidity spots were removed from two classrooms and new turf was put in the courtyard. The work team comprised the education and culture departments' staff specialists, teachers and the CiF maintenance and work crews.

The Formentera Council reported today on maintenance operations this summer at the island's three public primary schools. Education secretary Susana Labrador said upkeep at Sant Francesc's Mestre Lluís Andreu and the schools of Sant Ferran and el Pilar de la Mola, requested by school administrations, local parents' groups and student councils, was intended to get educational centres primed for the return of pupils tomorrow, 13 September.

Sant Francesc
In Mestre Lluís Andreu's lower building, the Council's maintenance brigade prepped an existing courtyard structure for storage use, cleaned the courtyard and boiler room, repaired damaged shutters and window tracks, scraped and painted inner doors and performed checks of electrical fixtures.

An outside firm was brought in by the Council to repair leaks and paint the hallway and entrance of the early-learning centre. The work cost €12,251, VAT included.

Council crews also carried out regular maintenance and fixed a leaky boiler in Mestre Lluís Andreu's upper building.

Sant Ferran
In Sant Ferran, the maintenance brigade painted classrooms, doors, railings and window bars, mounted a wooden shed in the courtyard of the toddlers' school, built new furniture and conducted regular upkeep.

Outside companies were tasked with filling cracks in the roofing over classrooms and building numerous structures: a partition to create a natural light area in one room, accessible wheelchair ramps on multiple outdoor walkways and walls around the sides of the school's sandbox, to keep mess to a minimum and improve conditions for play.

Other upgrades included new, earth-friendly artificial turf in the toddlers' swing area and cost €9,998.90, VAT included.

Painters were brought in to clean and paint the deteriorated outside walls of the building's central area for €9,005.52.

La Mola
In la Mola, crews spruced up paint jobs on the school's inside and outside walls, performed checks of air-conditioning units and electrical fixtures and did other regular maintenance.

The education secretary asserted that it is the Council's job to see to upkeep in schools and, for that reason, two individuals on the administration's work crew are tasked specifically with overseeing year-round regular maintenance.

In a nod to the gold-medal honour awarded to the island's community of medical care providers, the Formentera Council's language advisory service has teamed up with the chamber of commerce and the Pityusic small and medium-sized business group on a new outreach push. The initiative entailed design and printing of a number of posters unpacking various health-related terms. As in years past, the posters will be handed out at local shops and offices of the Council and will spotlight peculiarities and the etymology of words like guarir, salut, morbo, malaltia and infermer/a. As CiF education and culture secretary Susana Labrador explained, “the initiative seeks to highlight an important selection of words used in medical care,” something she asserted was “particularly significant given the key role such care has played for the people of Formentera”. The posters explore twelve concepts and can be requested at the Citizen's Information Office (OAC).