Miguel Pintor González School

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1969

The Miguel Pintor González infant and primary education school (CEIP) was created as a foundation in 1969. It was initially called Colegio de la Junta del Puerto. It was established to meet the schooling demands of the children of workers at the Santa Cruz port, as well as to accommodate children from the neighbouring Barrio de la Alegría, a settlement closely connected with port activity since always.   

The building it currently occupies was, at the time, a barracks, depot, offices and facilities of the former Ministry of the Navy. Hence its sober façade, accessed via a staircase leading to a basalt stone portal with a semicircular arch. On both sides of the door are sentry boxes and above the portal was a worked Francoist coat of arms carved in stone, recently removed due to the application of the Historical Memory Law.

Inside the building, the centre has spaces adapted to its function, as well as a large courtyard that houses a swimming pool which, recently, through an agreement between the school and the City Council, is available to sports clubs and the general public for use outside school hours.

In 1976 the former Port Works Board signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to adapt to the situation established by the General Education Law, thus the centre became state-owned with a special administration regime; it was then called Santo Domingo de la Junta del Puerto school. On 11 October 1984, at the unanimous request of the teaching staff, it was given the name it still holds today: Miguel Pintor González, in honour of one of its founders and a person who was for many years chief engineer of the Port Board of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

 Currently the building is owned by the Tenerife Port Authority, although it has been ceded to the Education Department of the Government of the Canary Islands, the entity responsible for its administration, as with all public schools in the Canary Islands.

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