Through Sainte-Marie, Sainte-Anne, Saint-Martin, Saint-Joseph and Saint-Matthieu, the Catholics are in the city. Between schools, foundations and communities, we get lost!
By Philippe Voisin.
Explanations: Sainte Anne is the name of the private nursery school and the elementary school is under the protection of Sainte Marie. The college is located on the St Joseph site behind the church. These Catholic educational establishments are now grouped under the name of Notre-Dame de la Providence.
St Martin is the patron saint of the church of Olivet and it is also the name of the community which provides parish service. Saint-Matthieu is the name of a national foundation which collects funds for the development and maintenance of private schools. It opens a departmental branch in 2022.
Let’s draw the first thread of this Catholic presence in Olivet with a figure: 99.1%! This is the success rate for the 2024 patent out of 111 candidates, 91.82% with honors! In 2024, La Providence d’Olivet college is ranked 1st college in the department, 311th out of 8,732 nationally, public and private establishments combined. What a success! For all levels, numbers are increasing. So much so that faced with high demand, especially in primary schools, the La Providence school group is refusing registrations by the dozen.
At the start of the September 2024 school year, the enrollment in elementary and nursery schools reached 532 students, or 33.6% of the total number of primary school students in the municipality. However, a high proportion of students come from surrounding municipalities (36% in primary, 57% in secondary).
An inevitable expansion
Cramped in its premises behind the Saint-Martin church and in the buildings in the town center on rue du Général de Gaulle, the La Providence school group is looking for a larger space to accommodate its development. The municipality which launched its major urban restructuring project in the city center, called “the blossoming of the town”, plans to decommission the buildings of the public girls’ school(1) to integrate them into the development plan and transform them into housing.
Alerted, Frédéric Cahu, the director of the La Providence college and major organizer, seized the opportunity and proposed to the town hall to settle on this plot to constitute a vast private educational complex. Convergence of interests. The town hall, which sees this proposal as a way to boost activity and respond to the challenges of school demographics, accepts. The first contacts between the parties date back to 2018. The municipal council has already initiated its “school” plan which provides for an investment of €30 million. Construction of a new school in the west of the town, renovation and extension of the Poutyl school in the city center. But population growth forecasts are expected to exceed the capacity to accommodate future students. The Providence project comes at the right time.
« We can anticipate that a good portion of new families will choose private school for their children. », assures Matthieu Schlesinger, the mayor of the city who is delighted to reduce the cost of developing the block. He continues. “ We accompanied the agreement with four obligations: destruction of an obsolete civil servants’ housing building, construction of an alley provided for in the urban plan, maintenance of the facades of the public school dating from 1899 and management of the demolitions ».
These reservations accepted, Catholic education can have an area of almost one hectare in the heart of the city to quickly accommodate a thousand students. This spectacular operation will benefit from a facade of 200 linear meters on rue du Général de Gaulle. (See photo) Spectacular because the old Cerisaie school built according to the Jules-Ferry law is the first girls’ school in the town, marked by a historic pediment engraved ” secular municipal girls’ school “. Let’s imagine a Catholic school behind it!
Rue du Général de Gaulle: on the left the future La Providence complex. In this narrow street, a thousand students will be educated. On the right, the entrance to the new city center with several hundred housing units. Photo @PV11/24
When we oppose the possible traffic jams caused by the increase in traffic to the mayor, he replies that it is on the contrary ” an opportunity for local businesses which will be able to benefit from this new clientele of parents of students “. Few voices expressed disagreement during the municipal council meeting on July 8, 2024.(2)
Everything happened at great speed. The project becomes urgent. The last administrative obstacles have been lifted; the transfer of lots representing precisely 9,396 m² was voted for the symbolic euro for the benefit of SEMDO, the semi-public developer of the Orléans metropolis. Twenty days later, the deed of sale was signed for the benefit of a discreet foundation, Culture and Heritage, which holds 80% of the diocesan heritage.
As of the previous April 29, the OGEC, the association which manages the operation of the private school group, received a favorable opinion on the building permit which it submitted on December 19, 2023. This is proof that the project The layout of the lot was already on the plan in an architectural firm in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin. Parents are then invited to consult this project during the college’s open days in June.
At the end of July, the Catholic foundation signed a check for €1,440,000 financed half by the loan and the other half by a contribution from the OGEC treasury. The town hall has carried out a good accounting operation since it was hoping for €1,100,000 and saved on demolition costs.
The display of such a vast complex dedicated to Catholic education in the heart of the city in former secular school premises is not a political question admissible by Matthieu Schlesinger. At the diocesan house of Orléans, we are proud of the exhibition of religious sentiment in the parish and we welcome the sympathetic listening of local elected officials.
Frédéric Cahu, director of the establishment, has already launched his educational project with the agreement of the Academic Inspectorate: a calendar per three-year cycle more respectful of the child’s learning: cycles from nursery to year 6 will be taught in the new downtown school complex. According to the director, the traffic problem will be resolved by alternating student returns.
The project of the establishment is: “ Ua school which promotes the discovery of interiority which helps to grow in humanity in the light of the Gospel “. Pastoral teaching, voluntary, is provided by animators and parish priests.
(1) The new Cerisaie school group was inaugurated at the start of the September 2024 school year in the Vanoise district to the west of the city
(2) Matthieu Schlesinger has a majority of 30 seats out of 34
Then, another saint is summoned, Saint-Martin!
To be continued…