The words belong to Kristoffer Kjellevold, who is -leader at Loddefjord school.
The renovation of the school building is postponed. He is worried about how it affects the everyday life of the school’s 180 pupils.
He is not alone in that. The patience of the staff at Loddefjord School has worn off over a long period of time.
When the city’s leading politicians began to problematize their own working conditions in the newly renovated town hall, the cup ran over.
Status of school absence
As early as the 1990s, the municipality was notified of ongoing school decay in Bergensskolen. In 2012, Nrk Brennpunkt put the issue on the national agenda. Here it turned out that Bergen was the worst in the class.
Since the state of disrepair became known, the municipal schools in Bergen have been queuing up to be renovated, expanded or completely rehabilitated.
See the status of the clean-up here
Current projects:
- Raw school – sports hall (Completed: 2025/26)
- Garnes junior high school – demolition, new building and swimming pool (Completed: 2025)
- Garnes school – replacement of ventilation system (Completed: 2024)
- Ortun school – new ventilation system and upgrade (Completed: 2024)
- Haukeland school – upgrade and capacity expansion (Completed: 2024)
- Eidsvåg school – rehabilitation, new building and sports hall (Completed: 2024)
Projects starting in 2024:
- Åstveit school – rehabilitation and new building (Completed: 2027)
- Ulriken relief school – capacity expansion and reconstruction (Completed: 2025)
- Sandgotna school – rehabilitation and remodeling of the first floor. (Completed: 2024)
Projects with priority start-up until 2027:
- Gimle secondary school – rehabilitation
- Haukedalen school – full internal refurbishment and extensive external measures
- Loddefjord school – total rehabilitation and new building/extension
- Salhus school – comprehensive upgrade
- Slettebakken school – extensive renovations and upgrades
- Minde school and sports hall – reconstruction of the after-school building, extension and sports hall
- Slåtthaug school – total rehabilitation and extension
- Ytre Arna school – total rehabilitation
- Christi Krybbe schools – SFO building
- Rolland School – demolition of existing school buildings and new buildings
- Storetveit school – total rehabilitation, newly built school and basketball hall
- Varden school – extension
Source: Bergen municipality
Nevertheless, Ragnfrid Llano at Loddefjord School believes that they have fallen behind in the queue and been deprioritised to a greater extent than others, without any good explanations.
– For as long as I can remember, there has been talk of a need for refurbishment here, says she, who has worked at Loddefjord School since the 80s.
This year the school celebrates its 50th anniversary. Since the school opened in 1974, little has changed, says Llano.
And plans for major changes have been postponed. The work, which was supposed to start sometime between 2025 or 2026, was postponed. It became known when the city council presented its budget before Christmas.
The latest message is that the municipality will start in four years, in 2028.
The Finance Board’s reasoning
Eivind Nævdal-Bolstad (H) points out that the rehabilitation of Loddefjord school is a priority in the investment programme.
– The reason the funds have been postponed is that the replacement school Loddefjord School was supposed to use is not available as originally planned. This is because the rehabilitation of Varden school, which will use the replacement school before Loddefjord, will take somewhat more time than previously thought.
This is therefore not a question of economics, the Finance Council believes.
– Bergen municipality has a limited number of replacement schools, and thus also a limited capacity for how many large rehabilitation projects can take place at the same time.
The development agency elaborates:
– What is behind the postponements and priorities?
The director in the agency for development, Willy-Andre Gjesdal, answers:
“Loddefjord School is located in an area together with several other municipal buildings. The area is subject to public regulation for Loddefjordåsen and there is much to be coordinated in such processes.
For Loddefjord School in particular, it has a very high conservation value and efforts are being made to take this into account as much as possible. Various concepts for extensions to the school are being considered and there have been several good meetings with the school management about this.
An extension must respect the existing building while ensuring size and facilities adapted to the current school use plan and teaching methods, not least for the part of the school that has a large reinforced department.
The various concepts will be input to the plans, and the work is not subject to postponements, the time taken is due to the time-consuming nature of coming up with the good concepts that take care of all needs in an area with difficult infrastructure.
Loddefjord School is part of the replacement school cabal with construction starting in 2028 and is prioritized based on the aforementioned conditions.”
The caretaker at Loddefjord School is praised for the changes being made in the meantime.
– When the building is so poorly prepared for today’s school operations, there is a constant need to initiate crisis solutions, says principal Linda Nygård Johannessen.
– But this will be piecemeal work which only provide half-baked solutions, she believes.
– The children complain of headaches
Eleven years ago, the municipality made a round of the city’s primary and secondary schools to check how the indoor climate was doing.
The result was disappointing. Loddefjord School was one of the many schools without statutory health protection approval.
They still do. The indoor climate at 15 other municipal schools in Bergen also does not meet today’s requirements.
Municipal schools without health protection approval
- Christi Kribbe schools
- Kirkevoll school
- Kjøkkelvik school
- Kronstad nursery school
- Loddefjord school
- Remember school
- Olsvik school
- Paradise School
- Rolland school
- Rothaugen school
- Raw school
- Salhus school
- Slettebakken school
- Storetveit school
- Sealen upbringing school
- Ytre Arna school
Source: Bergen municipality
The students at Loddefjord School complain of headaches and constantly sit with their water bottles, says the FAU leader.
When the students return after the summer holidays, they notice where the problem lies. Because when they are back at school, their form deteriorates.
But the city council has a plan to improve the indoor climate at the schools in Bergen, assures finance councilor Eivind Nævdal-Bolstad (H). In the budget for 2024, 40 to 50 million have been set aside for this.
– We have set up a working group that works continuously to ensure progress in the field, says Nævdal-Bolstad.
But in the first instance, priority is given to schools that do not need total rehabilitation. Then Loddefjord School is one of the six schools that fall away.
also read
At Salhus school, there is only one room that has good air quality
Downgraded despite promises of investment
Since 2019, the municipality has stepped in to equalize social inequalities in Loddefjord. An investment in the local environment, upbringing, education, urban development and infrastructure was promised.
Nevertheless, projects that fall short of all focus areas are postponed. This baffles Llano, who is the school’s resource person for the area investment.
– We are part of the regional initiative for a reason. Nevertheless, one feels that they are deprioritizing the school and the local environment.
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Fysak Loddefjord is postponed. Arguing about who is to blame.
In April, it was also known that the plans to build Fysak in Loddefjord in 2025 are being put on hold.
– Something is not right here, says Llano.
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Our schools must not become a clearinghouse
Children in wheelchairs must go out
Loddefjord School has one of the city’s largest reinforced departments.
Here, 33 students with various functional impairments and developmental disabilities get a school day adapted to their needs.
In new reinforced schools, the requirement is that each pupil must have 20 square meters each.
– We are nowhere near that, says Johannessen.
Loddefjord school also does not meet the requirements for universal design, varied room solutions and good storage space.
The headmaster believes that the school’s position as a strengthened school should play a role in the municipality’s priorities.
She is proud of the special education provision that the school offers, and it is disappointing that the school building becomes an obstacle.
The conditions make parents reluctant to send their children here, says the FAU leader. Nevertheless, there is little noise from the parents.
– They say that people are big-mouthed in Loddefjord, but here few complain, says Kjellevold and adds:
– But we can’t just sit and smile. That time is over.
– We have to shout on behalf of the students and parents, says Johannessen.
