On Friday, September 4, 2020, a school opening ceremony took place in the new building of Adam Mickiewicz High School in Piastów. The event began with a symbolic ribbon cutting with the participation of the school's management, Piastów town authorities and the general contractor. After the official part, the guests had an opportunity to visit the new school building located at ul. 11 Listopada 2A. The investment was executed as private funding initiative where the public partner is the Town of Piastów and the private partner - the company Warbud.
The project covered the rebuilding and expansion of the high school building which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary. Within 16 months, a modern three-story building with a total area of 4.5 thousand square meters was built. It also incorporates a spacious city library, a sports hall, a sports field and a canteen complex. The contract was signed on April 30, 2019 and the facility was put into operation in August 2020.
From September 2020 over 300 students may use comfortable classrooms and functional common spaces. Teachers and employees have larger administration and office rooms and the inhabitants of Piastów - a modern media library.
The new school was built in line with the rules of sustainable construction to benefiting owners, users and residents through reduced operating costs, better indoor air quality and reduced energy consumption. It is environmentally friendly and energy-saving. It uses ground heat pumps connected to photovoltaic installations, for which the energy source has been provided in the form of 69 vertical boreholes with a depth of 135 m.
At the same time, from July 2020, the second stage of the project is underway, consisting in a thorough renovation of the old high school building with an area of 2000 square metres. The new part of the building has been connected with the existing one - a connector and a courtyard, which is to be a resting place for students. The second stage is scheduled to be completed in April 2021.
‘The construction of the new seat of our High School is a particularly important investment for Piastów. We want the town to become more and more friendly, provide residents with both a good place to live and an offer of public services at the highest level. From this point of view, education is one of the most important directions of activity of local government authorities. I am very happy that the new seat of the school is already becoming a showcase for the town. In the year of its jubilee, the High School finally becomes a school in the full sense of the word - in addition to the high level of education for which it has been famous for years and which it has recently successfully referred to, today it also receives excellent premises: modern teaching facilities and a sports hall, which it has never had. This is a reason to be happy and give special thanks to you all who have been executing this project in the formula of public-private partnership which is so innovative for us. I give special thanks to the private partner - Warbud SA, whose professionalism deserves the words of the highest recognition,’ said Mr Grzegorz Szuplewski, Mayor of the Town of Piastów.
‘For Warbud, it is yet another successful PFI project after the seat of the District Court in Nowy Sącz and schools in the Wiązowna commune. We are all the more pleased that despite the ongoing pandemic, it was implemented efficiently and in line with the schedule. As a private partner, we are responsible for the construction, financing and management of this facility for the next 20 years. At the design and construction stage, we focussed on modern technological solutions, which is a great advantage when implementing this type of project. I am deeply convinced that the Piastów project will encourage other local governments to choose the PPP formula when building both educational and other facilities in the public services sector,’ said Mirosław Józefczuk, Member of Warbud SA’s Management Board. He also thanked the town authorities for their professional cooperation. ‘During all stages of construction, we felt that we were working with competent, well-prepared partners who were always willing to solve emerging difficulties,’ emphasized Mr Józefczuk.
The project is carried out under the supervision of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego.