The court decision determined the theft of about 520 thousand reais from the municipality of Araquari, in the north of Santa Catarina. The amount, according to the order, should be used to provide 403 places in municipal or private daytime preschool institutions for children under six years of age.

Justice ordered the confiscation of the assets of the city of Araquari to pay for places in kindergartens – Photo: Araquari City Hall / Information Disclosure

The decision was released this week as part of a process that has been ongoing since 2019 but has not been made public in the courts. Judge Daniel Radunc argues that “despite the fact that many years have passed, the municipality has not proved compliance with the determination made in the verdict.”

Thus, it accepts the request of the Ministry of Health to seize the amounts necessary to pay for and enroll children in a private network kindergarten, until the adoption of the previous decision, which determined the availability of vacancies in the preschool educational institution for all children, for a full time. and is carried out by the municipality in all months of the year.

The following values ​​are taken into account in the sum:

• R$ 5,280.00 for the cost of a full monthly fee for a private early childhood education center for four children aged 4;
• R$ 5,280.00 for the monthly fee for part-time work (morning/afternoon) for a private early childhood education center for four children aged 4;
• R$ 283,770 for full-time education at a private Early Childhood Education Center for 135 children aged 4 months to 2 years;
• R$ 142,936 to cover the monthly part-time fee of a private early childhood education center for 136 children aged 4 months to 2 years;
• R$ 46,200.00 for the cost of the full monthly fee for a private Early Childhood Education Center for 35 children aged 2 to 4;
• R$ 37,065.60 to cover the monthly part-time fee for a private early childhood education center for 52 children aged 2 to 4 years.

The decision also calls on the municipality to express its opinion on the possible availability of vacancies for these children.

What does Araquari City Hall say?

The city of Araquari said it is appealing the decision, which is “unrelated to some of the actions that the municipality has taken and is still doing.” See note:

“We have received information that the justice system has ruled positively in a lawsuit initiated in 2019 by the Ministry of State that called into question some of the actions in the field of education in Araquari. Among them: the queue of children at the CEI.

When we came to power, there was no waiting list in education, it was conducted in schools without centralization. There were about 2,000 children on the waiting list. We carried out a reprogramming of the municipal education plan, a joint action with a deputy, and there we created a single list, where the waiting lists were centralized. Today, there are about 300 children on this list, the vast majority are requests for changes in schedules and schools.

To get these numbers, we need to reprogram the CEI help. We distributed them in two shifts of 6 hours, increasing the time of stay for children from 4 to 6 hours. To do this, we hired another 100 teachers for our teaching network. When we designed the rescheduling to create two 6-hour shifts, we had one goal in mind: to enable the over 1,000 children who were on the waiting list to enroll.

Today we do not have children of compulsory age on the waiting list. Children from 4 years old are enrolled immediately. At the same time, we are investing heavily in the accreditation of private kindergartens to purchase 600 places: 420 from 0 to 3 years and 11 months and 180 from 4 years to 4 years and 11 months Annual investment of more than 8 reais. million

We are also building two new CEIs, one in Itinga and one in Casa Nova in Volta Redonda. Having earned two preschool educational institutions, we will eliminate the queue for preschool education.”