Bauska primary school loses entire leadership; municipality moves to merge school with local secondary school

Bauska’s municipal council has called an emergency meeting for 9 a.m. on 6 August to decide on the reorganisation of Bauska City Primary School. The move follows the resignation of the entire school leadership team. The council had previously planned to monitor the school’s performance until the end of the year, but says the resignations have made that plan impossible.

In May, the council instructed the school’s principal to open special education programmes for pupils with intellectual disabilities by 1 September, aiming to support the school’s development and meet quantitative targets. With no management team in place, however, the council argues that the conditions for the planned monitoring no longer exist and immediate action is needed to avoid prolonged uncertainty for staff, pupils and parents.

The council now plans to cancel the monitoring decision and start an immediate reorganisation by merging the primary school with the current Bauska Secondary School No 2. The merged institution would be renamed Bauska Secondary School, with the change taking effect on 1 September. The municipality stresses that the merger is a legal and administrative step and does not reduce access to education. Pupils will continue their studies in the existing primary school building on Rīgas Street 32.

Until the reorganisation is completed on 31 December, the principal of Bauska Secondary School, Vera Grigorjeva, is expected to serve as acting principal of the primary school. The council will also vote on renaming Secondary School No 2, saying the old numbered names have lost practical meaning and have often misled the public.

Municipal officials acknowledge that changes at schools are emotionally sensitive, but insist the current situation calls for an optimal solution to restore stability. A meeting between the municipal leadership and the school’s parent council took place on Tuesday.

Earlier reports noted that six schools in Bauska municipality have pupil numbers below the required thresholds, with forecasts showing no positive trend. Initially, reorganisation was planned for those schools, but in May the council set a single monitoring period until the end of 2026.