"A school group of 12 sections has begun to be built in Arrecife. Each teacher's house will have a hall-living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and a cistern"
With this headline and subtitle, Don Guillermo Topham announced in issue 295 of the weekly "ANTENA" of January 27, 1959, the start of the works: "In the last section of José Antonio Primo de Rivera street, the construction of a school group has begun (...) whose budget is close to two million seven hundred thousand pesetas, will occupy an area of 4,500 square meters of land, donated free of charge by the Arrecife City Council to the Ministry of National Education."
The chronicle of the date relates that it will consist of 12 sections, 6 for boys and 6 for girls, with classrooms of 54 m/2 and with capacity for 40 students, the classrooms will be equipped with wardrobes and space for school material, the classrooms for boys will be facing those for girls separated by a central playground.
"The 12 houses for teachers will have fronts to José Antonio street, will be built in groups of two floors, each having a hall living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet, three bedrooms and a small cistern. In the surroundings of these houses it is possible that an area will be destined for the location of gardens." The article ends by pointing out that the works will be fully paid for by the Ministry of National Education and citing the architect Don Rafael Masanet Fau and the quantity surveyor of the work, Don Alfredo Matallana Cabrera.
More than 57 years have passed, more than half a century at the service of public education in the city of Arrecife, hundreds of teachers have exercised there the noble function of teaching, thousands of students have passed through the classrooms of this popular school in the center of the capital, its walls have witnessed the seven general laws of education that it has had to endure, thousands of stories lived by each student, each student a story. Its name has mutated and has undergone several "metamorphoses": "The Groups", "Generalissimo Franco", "The Generalissimo" and finally the "La Destila" infant-primary center.
Now, more than half a century later, with considerable delay, all traces of that building have disappeared to give way to a more modern one in accordance with the educational demands of the 21st century. The new building designed by the local architect Martín Martín, designs a harmonious and modern two-story building, closed to the north and oriented to the south with the playgrounds open to Manolo Millares street, consists of 12 classrooms for primary and 6 for infant, along with a gymnasium, music room, library, support rooms, kitchen-dining room and other administrative units make up the bulk of the program. The project reflects that there will be 21 parking spaces in the basement and photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof to supply all the lighting for the center. Rainwater will be collected in cisterns, for storage, treatment and subsequent use in garden areas. To optimize educational resources, the project contemplates the shared use of the sports court on the roof of 25 x 12 meters, which can be used outside school hours with independent access from the street, as well as the space for the Ampa.
By Juan Cruz Sepúlveda