vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #149 / Social life / Reading article...

In the midst of a continuing budgetary crisis this summer, Mayor Victor Cherepkov has cut funds for a variety of municipal services.

He said there is no money in the budget for hospitals and the health department. He said poor children would have to find another source of funding for summer camp.

And now he has cut all subsidies to the city’s musical and art schools. Additionally, he has not paid an orphanage for its schooling program, so the home’s academic year will start a month late.

There are about 14 city music and art schools in Vladivostok. Although the city is known more for its ship-building than its cultural education, art school directors are proud of the quality of instruction at their institutions.

“We have the best teaching in the city, better than at those private schools,” said Tatyana Nikonova, director of Music School No. 4. “We’ve worked hard to make our school excellent.”

The cuts mean parents will now have to cough up three to four times more per month to send their children, but directors insist the schools will not close, and the students will still get a good education. “Of course not all the parents will be able to pay, but we will try, although it will be very hard” to stay open, said Marina Lyovochkina, director of Art School No. 1.

Meanwhile, city hall has also announced the Sept. 16 auction of two unoccupied kindergartens and an empty orphanage in an attempt to raise municipal funds.

The three buildings are empty because they need extensive renovations, and the city can’t pay. Starting prices range from $5,000 to $96,000.

City zoning laws dictate that the buildings must be used for educational purposes, although some are skeptical. They fear the auction is a way for the city to shed its educational responsibility.

“We’ve done a lot to preserve our schools....I am afraid the auction is a first step in privatizing education,” said Victor Stankevich, deputy head of the krai education department.

Vladivostok only has 60 percent of the school space it needs for its kids. Some schools work two to three shifts. And there are orphans who live dorm-style in children’s hospitals; there is only one orphanage here for adolescents.