The Alcalde Rafael Cedrés public school celebrates forty years since its construction and opening in this academic year 2017/2018. The educational community of the CEIP Alcalde Rafael Cedrés de Tías, where more than 800 students currently study, celebrated yesterday afternoon the opening ceremony of the 40th anniversary of this school, which was attended by the mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández, the Minister of Education of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Carmen Rosa Márquez, the island director of the Island Education Office of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mario Pérez, and a large representation of former students. The Minister of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands, Soledad Monzón, who was scheduled to attend this official event, was finally unable to attend due to her schedule.
It was the year 1975 when the construction of the current Alcalde Rafael Cedrés school in Tías began, by the awarded company Huarte y Cía, although it was necessary to wait until the 1978-1979 academic year to start classes in a municipality that barely had 3,000 inhabitants. "The furniture had arrived in advance but waited outdoors for a long time and it is the students themselves throughout the 1978-79 academic year who are configuring their own classrooms", highlights the book Reseñas de Educación en el Municipio de Tías" written by professors José Juan Romero and Juan Cruz Sepúlveda, author of the Postigo de Tías.
The old national school, which existed in the current dependencies of the central building of the Tías Town Hall, was renamed the "Alcalde Rafael Cedrés" Infant and Primary Center in memory of this entrepreneurial neighbor who served as mayor from 1948 to 1962 and, although he was not linked to teaching, during his term he contributed to the construction of the unitary schools of the municipality's payments. Juan Mª Perdomo, the mayor and also teacher, who promoted the construction of the school in 1975, became the first director of this center.
"There are many laws that have passed through this center, there have been many bureaucratic and administrative changes, however, we continue to preserve the identity that one day those who preceded us taught us with their mark and their footprint. Many of them are present in this place, our respect and recognition for the work carried out for decades," said the director of the CEIP, David García, during his speech to the large audience attending the event, which included former students and teachers, parents, students and the team of teachers of the current academic year. The Municipal Corporation of Tías was represented in addition to the mayor, Pancho Hernández, by the deputy mayor, Amado Jesús Vizcaíno, by the Councilor for Education, Aroa Pérez, the Councilors for Economy and Finance, Ramón Melián, Francisco Javier Aparicio, from the Cleaning, Transport, Festivities, Sports and Gardens Area, and Nerea Santana Alonso, all of them former students of the CEIP of Tías. The Councilor of the Cabildo and spokesperson for the municipal group of the PP in the Tías Town Hall, and Councilor for Urban Planning, Saray Rodríguez Arrocha, was present at the event. The spokespersons of the opposition groups in the Municipal Corporation, many of them former students of this public school, attended the 40th anniversary event.
During his speech, the mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández, recounted his experiences as a former student of the first public school that Tías had. "As mayor and son of Tías I feel a great honor to participate in this event where the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Tías school is commemorated, dedicated to the memory of who was mayor of Tías, Don Rafael Cedrés," said Pancho Hernández.
The mayor recalled that "many of you are young but the people of my generation remember the construction of this school. I have had the luck to see its foundations and evolution. As a neighbor. I was born right next door, and I live right next door. If you ask your parents and grandparents they will tell you that the first public school that Tías had, to whose classrooms their grandparents, parents or mothers went, was right next door. What is now the Town Hall, and even more so the mayor's office, were the first classrooms dedicated to teaching that we had in Tías," he added.
During the speech of the first mayor of Tías, a detailed history of the germ of the current school that is now 40 years old dedicated to education was made. "In 1972, the teacher from La Asomada, Juan Mª Perdomo, a native of the town of Haría, had arrived at the mayor's office. As mayor, he proposed to buy the farmland that surrounded the old town hall (where classes were given) right where the school and sports spaces stand today. This mayor manages the construction of the new national school by imperative of the General Law of Education in force that distributed the Basic General Education in the first and second stage," detailed Pancho Hernández.
"The construction of the singular school building was very slow, first about 8,300m/2 of land is made available to the Provincial Delegation of the Ministry of Education and Science, then in 1975 the work is awarded to the company "Huarte y Cia", it takes more than two years, the town hall has to invest to make a large black well and the management of the connection to UNELCO is eternalized, " stressed the first mayor of Tías, who also had a special memory for Juan Mª Perdomo, the teacher and mayor who became the first director of this center, who remained for two years, after his departure he was replaced by Mª Isabel Brito Aparicio for a couple of years, then there would be Ana Mª Perdomo Fernández. In 1982 Francisco Rodríguez Bermúdez (affectionately known as Paquito el Canario) arrives at the direction. D. Paco remains in the direction for 27 school years, he coincided with his mother Dña Mª Bermúdez and with his wife Dña. Juani Romero, manages to make the Center participate in all the events.
Among the events planned for the 40th anniversary, a family race stands out in December, various talks on education, a visit in May by schoolchildren to the cultural heritage of the municipality, an exhibition on this anniversary in June and a musical at the end of the year. To whet your appetite, yesterday the performance of the school choir took place in the courtyard, the screening of a video made by the youngest children of the school.
