The Capital Construction Department does not yet know whether it will be possible to reopen School №51

The Capital Construction Department of the City Council promises to conduct a technical survey to determine whether it is possible to restore Lyceum №51 in Mykolaiv.

This was announced by the head of the Capital Construction Department, Oleksii Savchuk, during a briefing on 22 January, according to NikVesti.

As is known, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported that the state had promised to provide money for the new construction of Lyceum №51. However, Oleksii Savchuk recalled that the state refused to finance the new construction project, which costs 1 billion hryvnias. Instead, the city authorities are currently planning to develop another project — this time for the reconstruction of the educational institution, he added.

«We are currently at war. We all understand that priorities, including those of the state, are changing. We cannot predict in advance what actions will be taken. As of now, we are concluding an agreement to reduce these costs and conceptually review the project. Which project will receive funding — perhaps we will return to the first option, or perhaps it will be the second option. But today we see that there is a need for this, so we are developing it,» said Oleksii Savchuk.

A journalist from NikVesti asked whether this was in line with the conclusion of the Technical Council of the Capital Construction Department regarding the future of the destroyed lyceum building. At that time, it was said that the building could not be restored and only needed to be demolished and rebuilt.

Instead, Oleksii Savchuk said that before developing the second project — this time for the reconstruction of the lyceum — the contractor would conduct a technical survey of the destroyed building to determine whether it could be restored.

«How is the implementation of this project being initiated? We are drawing up a design assignment. In this case, for reconstruction. This is a design task. This report will be prepared directly by the designer before the project documentation is developed. After this report, the design will be carried out,» explained Oleksii Savchuk.

First Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services Ihor Nabatov added that, in his opinion, the project to restore the educational institution's building will only be developed if the technical report shows that it is possible to do so.

«If the report is negative, then I think that everything will be closed and work will only be carried out according to the technical report,» he added.

Earlier, NikVesti wrote that Mykolaiv wants to develop another project for Lyceum №51, which was destroyed by shelling — this time for its reconstruction. Prior to this, the city authorities had already commissioned a project for the new construction of the «golden» lyceum for 6.3 million hryvnias, according to which building the school from scratch would cost more than 1 billion hryvnias.

Read the NikVesti article «This is our home». How does the destroyed Lyceum №51 teach students, and should we expect it to be rebuilt?

Mykolaiv Lyceum №51

As is known, building a new lyceum will cost 1 billion hryvnias, according to Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. To commission the new construction project, 6.3 million hryvnias were allocated from the city budget.

The mayor also said that international donors will not provide such funds, and there are no such funds in the local and state budgets.

Although the mayor announced the preliminary cost of building the lyceum, there is currently no finished project. It was supposed to have been developed a year ago — by the summer of 2024. However, the development period was delayed — the contractor promised to complete it by the end of March 2025, but again failed to do so.

Ukrainian people's deputy Ihor Kopytin spoke out against the idea of building a new lyceum. He believes that the destroyed building should be rebuilt, as it will cost about 30 million hryvnias.

At the same time, Oleksii Savchuk, head of the capital construction department of the Mykolaiv City Council, said that the city would «take measures» to build a new Lyceum №51.

The construction of Lyceum №51 in Mykolaiv was previously included in the list of five objects in the Mykolaiv region, for the restoration of which 667.9 million hryvnias were allocated from the state budget in 2023. In July 2022, a Russian missile hit the building of this educational institution.

Initially , the head of the city council's education department, Hanna Lychko, said that Lyceum №51 was of great importance to Mykolaiv, so it would be rebuilt. However, the technical council of the city council's capital construction department concluded that the building of Lyceum №51 should be demolished. After that, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych announced that a new, modern facility with shelters for children would be built in its place.

Anatolii Petrov, deputy mayor of Mykolaiv, told NikVesti that the project for the construction of Lyceum №51 would be developed by the summer of 2024. He later said that they wanted to build three buildings there for primary, secondary and higher education.

In March 2024, the city council's capital construction department signed a contract to develop a project for the construction of the lyceum for 6.3 million hryvnias.

After the project was developed, it was announced that the Infrastructure Restoration and Development Service in the Mykolaiv region would be responsible for the construction of the educational institution.