Hero of our time

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The village of Vershinino, which is 30 kilometers from Tomsk, has recently been enriched with a new school, and what a! With a unique heating system, brand new computers, interactive whiteboards, dozens of energy-saving lamps, a large gym and a comfortable dining room. And it appeared thanks to the personal initiative of only one local resident - the farmer Mikhail Kolpakov.

This is a unique case for our region - a person himself decided and built a full-fledged school himself, moreover, one that not every city can boast, not to mention villages and villages.

Background

The residents of Vershinino had their own school, but its condition had long left much to be desired. The small wooden building did not have a gymnasium or a canteen, and it itself had fallen into disrepair over the long years of service. Thanks to repeated repairs, it was possible to postpone the issue of closing the school, but two years ago the authorities put an end to it: the school needs to be closed.

Vershinino is a small village, only 800 people, there are not even hundreds of schoolchildren, but they need to study somewhere. There is no money in the budget for the construction of a new school, and it is not foreseen, and “going for knowledge” to a neighboring village is inconvenient and unsafe. It was then that the local farmer Mikhail Kolppakov decided to take, as they say, the initiative into his own hands and build a new school for the rural children. On their own and at their own expense.

To get money for the construction, it was necessary to mortgage all the equipment and utility rooms. And in the spring of last year, construction began.

At first, Mikhail did not have any special ideas regarding the appearance and interior decoration, because the main thing is for the school to work. But gradually, getting involved in the process, I wanted to do everything “perfectly”. “Once you build a school, it means you need to build it good,” Mikhail decided and redoubled his construction efforts, and for advice he turned to the main “heroes of the occasion” - teachers and students.

- They said “We need an interactive whiteboard”, so we will do it, they said “we need computers”, there will be computers. After all, this is all done for the children first of all, and they need to ask for advice, - says Mikhail. - For example, they made us 5-6 drawings with options for the facades of the building, we put it all up, called the kids - choose which one you like best. So the facade was chosen. And with classrooms the same way - the teachers themselves said what color they wanted the walls, what curtains. As they said, that's what we do.

Light, heat, water and safety

The total area of the new school is about 2 thousand square meters, it is designed for 80 students. And since the organization of the construction proceeded not so much from the possibilities and existing limitations, but from the desires and needs, then the project of the new school can be called unique. There will be a comfortable dining room, a good gymnasium, rooms for doing work, a cloakroom, showers, changing rooms … In general, everything that is required for a good school, and even much more.

This school does not and will not have the usual batteries (which in most cases are carefully pasted over with multi-colored chewing gum); it is equipped with the same heating system as in the only energy-efficient kindergarten in Tomsk in the Zelenye Gorki microdistrict. The premises are heated by geothermal sources: through special pipes laid under the floor, water flows throughout the building and warms it. The floors in the classrooms and hallways are warm, so no batteries are needed. The floors, by the way, have a modern homogeneous coating, the service life of which is 50 years.

- People from Holland came here, this is their technology. They have already filmed a TV commercial here, they will come to the opening - in some Siberian wilderness, in a village, some farmer is building a school with new technologies. The only school with new thermal floors. Heating the land. There are sidewalks everywhere. There is a reservoir for water of 200 liters. All the guys who are building are asking if plots are for sale here, they want to move to live here. Others say that they themselves will go to such a school to study …

The geothermal thermal installation is located in the basement. The heat supply process is regulated by literally pressing two buttons

To organize the heat supply system, 28 wells were drilled, the work was carried out throughout almost the entire winter. There was even a joke in Vershinino: a grandmother comes up to the head of the settlement and asks: "What is Kolpakov drilling for there?" And he replies: "He is looking for oil, he needs to pay for the school."

The water supplied to the school is local, which is used by the whole village. However, it contains a lot of iron, almost 20 times higher than the norm. Therefore, it was decided to install a special treatment system that significantly softens the water, so you can safely drink it directly from the tap.

The water treatment system is also hidden in the basement

In all the premises, new LED lamps were installed, energy-saving and very strong (everything happens at school), which have passed more than one strength test.

And in the washrooms, they came up with an original system of lighting with sunlight, which helps to save electricity.

The issue of safety in the new Verkhininsky school is a separate topic. The entrance to the school will be equipped with a special turnstile with a clever system of recording the “arrival and departure” of students (“At first we thought about the card system, but the boys will quickly lose their cards, and you won't lose your finger,” says Kolpakov). As soon as the child crosses the school threshold, the parents receive an SMS notification. Severely, but with the help of such technology it is easier to track the path of each child, and it helps to fight with poor students and uninvited guests.

While a miracle system worth 90 thousand rubles awaits its finest hour in boxes

In addition, a special monitor is installed in the teacher's room, which displays information about all students and teachers present at the school today. Well, with "unwanted persons" everything is clear, you say, but what about the parents? After all, parental meetings have not been canceled! Parents will, of course, be allowed to go to school - the class teacher will personally supervise who should come.

A large TV will be hung near the entrance to the foyer, where the schedule of lessons, announcements and any information important for students and teachers will be broadcast. An accurate electronic clock with a bell will also be installed here. All classrooms and corridors are equipped with video surveillance systems: unfortunately, sad cases of attacks on both students and teachers are known - the camera will record everything that happened in the classroom, and it will be easier to maintain discipline during the lesson.

The school also installed the most modern fire extinguishing system. But that's not all - a lightning protection system, powered by electricity, costing 150 thousand rubles has been installed on the roof. It will “catch” lightning and “take” it into the net.

All the best for children

In the new school, children from Vershinino will have a place to run, jump, dance and, of course, refresh themselves. They decided to make the gym here large enough (24x12 meters), which is not something every school can boast of.

Next to the gym there are changing rooms and showers for boys and girls, as well as a separate shower room for the coach.

Dressing room and shower room for girls are tiled with bright orange tiles, for boys - green

In addition, in the courtyard of the school they will equip a special platform where the kids can throw out the energy accumulated over a long 40 minutes, and the senior pupils can compete in strength and dexterity. So far, the site is filled with concrete, but a little later a special rubberized coating will appear here, protecting from strong blows, bruises and scratches:

Special equipment, refrigerators, smokeless stoves were also purchased for the canteen. Spoons, forks, plates, pots and pans were all purchased from scratch.

The stage will be assembled in the assembly hall, mobile soft chairs will be installed. A large mirror will be hung on one of the walls and handrails will be mounted - for full-fledged choreography.

In the classrooms, there will be obligatory interactive whiteboards (eight in total - one for each class), in the computer science class, new computers will be installed.

There will also be separate rooms for labor lessons: good sewing machines will be installed for girls, to which electricity and a stove have already been supplied - for practical "kitchen" lessons.

The territory adjacent to the school will also be equipped: the paths are already asphalted, and soon flowers will appear on all the flower beds. The entrance to the school grounds will be decorated with original wrought-iron gates.

Of course, it cannot do without the help of local residents, first of all, with the improvement of the adjacent territory. The teachers, together with the students, plant flowers, take care of the clubs and beds. The guys also help to remove construction waste, and, according to Mikhail Kolpakov, the children themselves offer their help:

- The boys themselves come and say, "Uncle Misha, take us to work." And I think: really, let them work better than sit back or even worse - drink. I entrusted them with small jobs and appointed them a salary - I pay them 50 rubles an hour. They worked, they worked and that's it. Recently another one came up: "Uncle Misha, take me to work too." I say: "You are still small!" And he told me: "Yes, I'm eight years old, my mother allowed me."

Difficult questions

The main difficult question, of course, is money. Before the idea of constructing a new building arose, Kolpakov had repaired the old Verkhininsky school more than once, but this did not save the situation - it still lacked the necessary gym, so sooner or later the school would be closed and the children would have to travel to a neighboring village. …

- Kress arrived (until March 2012 - the governor of the Tomsk region - ed.), I asked him - Viktor Melkhiorovich, I say, I don’t need to help my farm, please do one thing - leave the school in Vershinino. If the school is closed, it starts right away - today the school was closed, tomorrow something else will be closed, people will not come, but I have production here - I am rebuilding the state farm, which was ruined. He sees that I have a city-forming economy, development is planned, and says: "We will help you."

When they began to discuss the specifics, they agreed that Kolpakov would build the school in record time, in less than a year, and the region would help him in the construction process and buy the finished school from the farmer. The region, according to the governor's estimates, given the sluggishness of the state machine, would take 3-4 years for the project and more funds than the economic Kolpakov would invest in the project. The benefit, it would seem, is obvious, they shook hands, everything worked.

But the regional authorities changed, and the school in Vershinino was nevertheless decided to be closed. The farmer was told - "don't build".

- And how "not to build" ?! I want my village to develop, so that people come to my village, and not leave it, and that normal people live here, and not drunks who are already drunk, as in all villages. That is, there must be some kind of life. And children are everything. If there are no children in the village, that's all. Now our generation, it can be said, is practically extinct. Nobody wants to work. You don't need to drink anything else. These are our 80 little children left. Those who have not drunk themselves yet, who will grow up and be able to work. And for these children, if we now create conditions, build a school, make them go in for sports and so on, then we will not lose these children. If the school leaves, they are sickly there, they will study badly - to a neighboring village, you can imagine, the child has left - what is he doing there, who is beating his face there, or he smokes there, or clogs a joint, or is beaten … At 6-7 I got up in the morning, while they drove him, he would not even understand where he came, he came home - there are no additional activities and sports. And here we have a gym and a stadium (by the way, Kolpakov also built the stadium in Vershinino - ed.).

And Kolpakov decided to build. On borrowed money - fortunately, a 20-year-old ideal credit history helped, and Rosselkhozbank has issued and continues to issue funds for the construction until now.

The year was difficult - bureaucratic problems began with a seemingly already rented plot of land, the farmer could not meet with the leadership of the region, or at least the district, the construction was delayed. In December 2012, a farmer, as a confidant of Putin, got to a meeting with the president, after which the issue got off the ground. An agreement was signed with the farmer and he continued his battle for the school. The authorities got involved in the project already at the final stage, when it became clear that the building, in fact, had already been built.

How much the construction of the school will eventually result in, Mikhail Kolpakov still finds it difficult to say: "how much will be, so much will be."

Finishing work at the school is still underway, in optimistic plans - to have time to finish everything before August 1, in order to have another month in stock for finishing up various little things. In any case, the task is clearly set - a new school for children in the village of Vershinino should be fully ready by September 1. However, a number of important issues for the school have to be resolved - it is necessary to obtain a license for educational activities, check all project documentation and remove the status of unauthorized construction from the school. On top of that, it is not yet clear who will accept the finished building.

- Time is running out, and the school still needs to be completed. I'll finish the construction, but now everything depends on the authorities. There are many questions and all of them are difficult, but I think they can be solved, - says Mikhail.

Nevertheless, while this article was being prepared, it seems that the main question, which had been hanging for more than a year, was resolved - whether the authorities would buy out the school from Kolpakov. In any case, according to the VTomsk portal, at the general meeting of the regional Duma on July 25, the first deputy head of the finance department Vera Plieva announced the allocation of a subsidy from the regional budget to the Tomsk region in the amount of 82 million rubles specifically for the purchase of a school from a farmer.

Text: Anna Matskovskaya, Evgeny Mytsik, Elena Fatkulina