Sometimes the living environment of the citizens and the formation of political will are close together.

In the emphasis with which the district parliamentary groups in the Hochtaunus have demanded lessons in schools and not at home, personal experiences may have played a role.

"There must be face-to-face teaching as far as possible," urged Patricia Peveling (The Greens) for the next school year.

Katja Adler (FDP) recalled the results of the research, according to which distance learning on the computer at home is as effective as holidays.

"That's why we have to protect the children in regular lessons."

Bernhard Biener

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Hochtaunus district.

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The Hochtaunuskreis should ensure that even with an increase in the incidence numbers, classroom lessons for as long as possible with a low risk of infection are possible, the Greens formulated in an application.

"Soon there will be holidays after a school year with special stresses," said Peveling.

“Now the district has to do its homework.” In addition to other precautions, the Greens are also hoping for air purification devices.

The FDP went one step further in an amendment and wanted to instruct the district committee to retrofit all classrooms with mobile air purifiers as quickly as possible and to apply for funding.

It could not be possible to send the children back to school with thick sweaters and blankets in winter, Adler said.

Check atmospheric researchers

Not only the Greens are hoping for information from the results of the model test at three schools in Bad Homburg and Königstein, which were equipped with air purifiers in December. Since then, atmospheric researchers at Frankfurt's Goethe University have been using weekly measurements to check whether the cleaning performance has changed. Last year they caused a stir with a study according to which the risk of an aerosol infection with the Sars-CoV-2 virus can be reduced by 90 percent after half an hour if such devices are operated in a classroom.

The model test will run until the end of the school year, then the report will be available two to three weeks later, said Joachim Curtius from the Institute for Atmosphere and Environment on request. But the interim results confirmed the researchers' assumption: "The cleaning performance is maintained and does not deteriorate." Some air purifiers have reached 1,400 operating hours. "They work well," said Curtius, summarizing the preliminary assessment that he recently presented at an expert workshop.

This assessment was not yet available to the MPs at the district council meeting. "We also want to ensure classroom teaching," said Yannick Dreyer (CDU). The proposals should be discussed in the technical committee. Because it is urgent, the coalition does not want to wait until the next regular round of meetings, but rather to convene a special meeting of the main finance and digitization committee during the summer holidays. Ileana Vogel (AfD) wanted to know whether the ventilation system, which was constructed relatively simply by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, was suitable for use.

In the Committee on School, Culture, Sport and Leisure, the MPs want to deal with further corona consequences for young people and their families after the summer break.

"They are the ones who suffered from the pandemic," said Laura Burkart-Gorißen to justify the corresponding Greens request.

"They couldn't go to the zoo or the cinema, saw their friends less and celebrations for key moments such as school enrollment, graduation or their 18th birthday were canceled." have played.

Early services for young families

The Greens took over the proposal of the coalition of CDU, SPD and Free Voters, which has broken down their questions.

Annette Hogh (CDU) said that the district, together with the state education authority, should report on its experiences with the learning camps sponsored by the state.

But outside of school, too, people want to know whether psychological problems have increased and the social services have knowledge of the increasing number of cases of sexual and domestic violence.

One should not forget the early services for young families.

The report should also contain the situation in the women's shelters.

"We'll need several committee meetings for that," said Hogh.