By Tuesday morning, more than 5,600 people had signed the appeal to save the school.
According to Austrian media reports, the approximately 240 pupils of the Schwarzstraße primary school and their parents were informed by letter at the beginning of February about the planned closure of the school after the end of the school year in summer 2025.
The new landowner, the Benedictine Abbey of Admont (Styria), is planning a residential development in a prime location on the site of the school, according to the letter. The plan is to build 130 flats there, without any subsidised, affordable rental flats.
According to the reports, the city sees no legal means of enforcing a certain percentage of affordable housing.
Teachers accuse Benedictines of greed for profit
The monastery recently increased the rent for the school building fivefold, ORF reported on Tuesday. In response, the teachers' organisation SALVE accused the monastery of profiteering.
According to ORF, Admont Abbey emphasised that it was willing to negotiate: "I can't speak for all parts of the negotiations, because we were only asked about the one-year extension and that was only a fortnight ago," said Franz Pichler, the abbey's economic director. An extension of the school's operations until summer 2026 is still possible. The school had already been granted an additional year in the building in 2024.
Admont Benedictine Abbey is home to the world's largest monastery library. The abbey's tasks also include the abbey grammar school and social facilities.
"Since the foundation of our monastery in 1074, the Admont monks have been committed to anchoring education in the region," says the monastery's website.