In Pivdennoukrainsk, the closure of the Ivanivka Gymnasium may be delayed for another year
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- Alona KokhanchukReporter
Pupils at Mykolaiv Lyceum No. 55. Photo for illustrative purposes from the NikVesti archiveThere are plans to reorganise the South Ukrainian Ivanivska Gymnasium into a primary school, which will cater solely for pupils in Years 1–4. Deputies are due to consider the relevant draft resolution at the city council session on 3 July. If it is not supported, or if the session does not take place, the reorganisation of the school will have to be postponed for at least a year.
This was revealed during a meeting of the council’s health committee, according to NikVesti.
The draft resolution proposes changing the type of institution and renaming the Ivanivska Gymnasium to the Ivanivka Primary School. As Yurii Sinchuk, head of the education department, explained, this is necessary due to the requirements of current legislation and the insufficient number of pupils for the school to function as a gymnasium.
According to him, the issue has been under discussion for over a year. Public consultations were held as far back as the summer of 2025, and the draft resolution has been available for public comment and suggestions throughout the year. However, no official objections to the document have been received.
«If the resolution is adopted at the session, we will then have the right, in accordance with current legislation, to announce further public hearings on the closure of this school at the end of the academic year,» explained Yurii Sinchuk.
At the same time, he emphasised that if the decision is not adopted at the forthcoming session, the procedure will effectively be derailed, as there will not be enough time to complete all the necessary steps within the required timeframe.
«If we do not adopt this decision, the school will continue to operate as a gymnasium… Everything will be postponed for another year, and in fact, it will take not one but two years before the school is fully closed down,» explained Yurii Sinchuk.
Currently, only 25 pupils are enrolled at the Ivanivska Gymnasium. According to the official, it is precisely this number of pupils that prevents the school from meeting the requirements for operating as a gymnasium.
It should be noted that in Pivdennoukrainsk, city councillors have not convened for a session since February 2026. Meetings are constantly being postponed.
Following yet another postponement of the Pivdennoukrainsk City Council session, a group of councillors appealed to the city council secretary to convene the session on 12 June.
However, on 12 June, the councillors were unable to hold the meeting. The city council secretary had taken the keys to the meeting room, and the councillors were denied access both to the premises and to the voting system, preventing them from holding the session lawfully.
The governance crisis in Pivdennoukrainsk
It should be recalled that in 2025, councillors in Pivdennoukrainsk were unable to convene for several consecutive sessions, as a result of which the city still did not have an approved budget for 2026. Consequently, the mayor, Valerii Onufriienko, appealed to the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, requesting that a military administration be established in the Pivdennoukrainsk municipal territorial community.
The councillor stated that there are plans to establish a military administration in Pivdennoukrainsk. According to him, Energoatom, the Office of the President and the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration are intervening in this process to exercise control over the budget.
Earlier, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, said that he saw no legal grounds for establishing a military administration in Pivdennoukrainsk at the request of the mayor, Valerii Onufriienko, but that the matter would be looked into further.
Furthermore, the deputy head of the Regional State Administration, Heorhii Reshetilov, explained that the decision to establish a military administration is taken by the President, and for this to happen, there must be grounds clearly defined by law. Either this must be linked to military consequences, or to the suspension of local self-government bodies.
In May 2026, Valerii Onufriienko, the mayor of Pivdennoukrainsk, told NikVesti that there is currently a need to introduce a military administration in the city.
In addition, Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, submitted documents to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requesting the establishment of a municipal military administration in Pivdennoukrainsk.
