Castelvetrano school Di Matteo suppressed by regional plan? Municipality appeals to Tar
The Municipality of Castelvetrano has appealed to the Palermo Administrative Court (Tar) against the decree of the regional councillor for Education Mimmo Turano to request the annulment of the sizing and rationalization plan of the school network 2024/2025 for the part concerning Castelvetrano. There has been a lot of controversy in recent months over the possibility that the plan might end up supressing the school recently named after the young Giuseppe Di Matteo. Councillor Turano had assured that this would not happen. Now, however, the Municipality is resorting to legal action. The Tar has scheduled a hearing for June 21.
According to the regional decree approved in January 2024, the Giuseppe Di Matteo school, as well as the Dante Alighieri and Ruggero Settimo branches, will be closed and merged with the Radice-Pappalardo institute, while the Croce branch will be merged with the Capuana-Pardo institute. The latter will change its name to Giuseppe Di Matteo starting from the next school year.
According to the appeal filed by the Municipality’s legal office, directed by lawyer Francesco Vasile, the decree would be deemed illegitimate because it did not take into account the decision of the provincial conference, which had excluded the Castelvetrano institutes from the sizing plan, thus keeping the Giuseppe Di Matteo school alive. Therefore, there would be a lack of collaboration between public entities. According to the Municipality, “the reorganization wanted by the Region is likely to result in a clear violation of educational continuity that will affect the students attending the current second Giuseppe Di Matteo school.”
The former Ruggero Settimo school in Castelvetrano was renamed in memory of Giuseppe Di Matteo on May 22, 2023, on the proposal of the Marsala section of the National Magistrates Association. The name change occurred after a mandatory process involving the School Council, the City Council, and the Provincial Conference. The main school building, where a mural of Giuseppe Di Matteo on horseback is displayed, is located just a few meters from the home of Patrizia Messina Denaro (pictured next to the mural) and in the Badia neighborhood, where the boss Matteo Messina Denaro was born and raised before becoming a fugitive. Messina Denaro himself attended that school as a child.
Turano stated that the Di Matteo school will remain open. “It will continue to be called the Di Matteo school – he publicly replied in previous months, in response to the Mayor of Castelvetrano, Enzo Alfano – and, since it is a school circle, it will be merged with other schools to become a comprehensive institute. I look out for the interests of the children.”
Castelvetrano, la scuola Di Matteo soppressa dal piano regionale? Il Comune presenta ricorso al Tar
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