Artemida Primary School No. 4 will continue to operate on Monday in the same building, under a temporary tenancy agreement. The Municipal Council was convened for an urgent meeting via circular on Friday 30 October, from 12:00 to 15:00, with councillors voting by email, text message or telephone, on a single issue: the ‘temporary direct lease of a building’ for the school, ‘due to the pending nature of the tender process that has already been initiated’. The decision had not been published by Friday evening.
Why was it necessary?
As we reported on Thursday, the school’s rent had until now been covered by a donation from ‘AIGEA AMKE for Cultural and Charitable Works’, which the Municipal Committee accepted only for the period 1 September–31 October 2026. From November, the rent will be paid by the Municipality. On Thursday 29 October, the Municipal Committee held an emergency meeting to discuss the terms and conditions of the tender for a twelve-and-a-half-year lease, for which the Municipality has earmarked up to 885,000 euros, i.e. up to 5,900 euros per month.
However, a tender process takes time: publication of the invitation to tender, a deadline for bids, an inspection of the property by a committee, and the award of the contract. It could not have been completed in three days. The City Council’s invitation states this clearly: the urgency stems from ‘the specific and imminent date on which the current rent payment arrangement ceases’ and from the need for the tenancy to continue from 1 November.
The same building
The invitation addresses a question that had remained unanswered: the school ‘is already operating on the property in question’. In other words, the temporary lease relates to the building currently attended by the 174 pupils, and teaching will continue uninterrupted. The invitation does not specify an amount or the duration of the temporary lease; these will be set out in the decision once it is published. It will also be clarified whether the same building will be put up for auction, which is limited to building block C2234 of Town Planning Unit 13.
Lift at Spata Secondary School
On the same day, the mayor, Dimitris Markou, approved, by Decision No. 815/2026, the design and the direct award procedure for the ‘Construction of an external lift for Spata Secondary School’. The budget is 60,000 euros plus VAT, €74,400 in total, and the funds have been allocated from the 2026 regular budget, under the heading ‘Other buildings under construction’.
Study 07/2026 was carried out by the Technical Services Department of Attica Development, the local authority development organisation based at Spata Town Hall. On 21 July, the Municipality had signed a programme contract with the organisation for the study, licensing and supervision of the project.
The decision justifies the project on the grounds of the need for ‘safe and unimpeded access’ to the school building and for ‘improved accessibility’, that is, to enable pupils, teachers and parents with mobility difficulties to access the upper floors. The €60,000 (excluding VAT) is precisely the maximum amount up to which a project may be awarded directly. A contractor has not yet been selected, and the decision does not specify a timetable.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, notice convening the 23rd urgent Municipal Council meeting (ref. no. 87879/30-10-2026); Mayor’s Decision No. 815/2026 and decision to enter into a commitment, Diaugia 30 October 2026; programme agreement with the Attica Development Agency, Diafania 22 July 2026.
