Mr. Kaulfersch, your time as city school representative is coming to an end.

Would you do the job again?

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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In any case.

You learn an incredible amount, you can help shape one or the other area, you meet a lot of exciting people and you can look behind the scenes of city politics.

I will definitely miss that time a bit.

Is it common to quit just before high school to prepare for exams?

For me this is the best mode.

I could have stuck on it for another half a year at most.

When you retire from school, your term of office ends automatically.

It's good to let go now and have a little more breathing room for the Abitur preparation.

And to think about what to do afterwards.

How much work does a city school boy have?

How many hours are you putting into it?

I guess it's like 20 to 25 hours a week on average, besides school and everything else.

There are often appointments until late in the evening, all the content-related work and the many emails.

What were the milestones for you?

What are you personally proud of and what did the committee achieve?

It was of course a team effort.

We have initiated a pilot project in which free menstrual products are available in the toilets at selected schools.

We have also been given permanent speaking rights in the specialist committees of the city council and our budget has been increased.

We organized a large democracy fair in the Römer with more than 600 participants and the second Frankfurt School Suicide Prevention Day with the Puhl Foundation.

This resulted in a petition with more than 10,000 signatures.

What is it about?

In Germany there are more suicide deaths than traffic deaths each year.

Traffic rules are covered extensively in class, but mental health is not.

That's why we want the topic to be firmly anchored in the curriculum.

But we also need more school psychologists and school social workers.

There are about 6,300 students for every rural school psychologist.

That's not appropriate.

What role does the Corona crisis play in this context?

Has the need increased because many students suffered from loneliness?

Yes, that has increased.

But the need was clearly there even before that.

But not only the state government is responsible.

The city, as the public body responsible for youth welfare, must also do more to provide general support for children and young people with problems.

There are also far too few places here.

There is half a job for an elementary school, and there is even no youth welfare in the grammar schools.

Urban youth welfare must be strengthened in all schools and school types.

In this way, we can better decouple school success from social and family conditions and give young people better support if they have problems.

A topic that also moved the schools last year is the discussion about a dress code.

Do you think such rules make sense?

The majority of young people find guidelines on how to dress to be patronizing.

And I don't think much of it either.

Who decides when a piece of clothing should be too short?

There are no objective criteria for this, only subjective role models.

It should be up to each person, it is part of the free development of personality.

I don't see how this could interfere with learning.

What else was important to you?

At our insistence, the Roman coalition improved the new school development plan with one provision.

Originally, a middle school, i.e. a high school without an upper level, was planned for the east of Frankfurt.

That made little sense.

Also because there are no upper school places.

I'm also optimistic that the East Gymnasium will be built in the Günthersburghöfe.

There was great resistance to a school at this point.

That's bizarre because we urgently need new schools in Frankfurt.

If this keeps up, we're in for a real problem.

How do you rate the speed with which schools are being renovated and built in Frankfurt?

Nobody can be satisfied with that.

We have a considerable shortage of space and at the same time a lack of staff in the responsible offices.

In this situation, a clever prioritization of the many upcoming construction and renovation projects is required.

So far, this has been missing from the education department.

And the political decision-making processes must also go faster.

Do you feel taken seriously when dealing with politicians?

The successes speak for the fact that we are noticed and that people listen to us.

But of course there are always people who don't take you one hundred percent seriously.

We can handle that.

Is there a lot of judgment about schools without knowing them from the inside?

Little is thought of in practice.

You can see that, for example, when the Minister of Education downplays the shortage of teachers.

Many teachers and students feel alienated by this.

Or when the state audit office suggests that in Frankfurt one could save 7.9 million euros a year in administrative and secretarial staff in the schools, that does not match our experience of how urgently they are needed.

Do you feel used?

no

Dealing with the politicians, with whom we worked a lot, was mostly at eye level and characterized by genuine interest.

What advice would you give your successor?

Be confident and persistent.

And sometimes it's just important to have patience.

The political mills grind slowly.