Gondomar submits new Programme Escolas bid for €3 million Valbom Secondary School works

Gondomar City Council has submitted a fresh application to the Programme Escolas, seeking funding for refurbishment works at Valbom Secondary School. The contract is worth roughly three million euros and could still get under way this year.

Second application to the Programme Escolas

Lodged on 30 June, the final day of the deadline, the bid represents the municipality’s second attempt to secure financial support for the remodelling of Valbom Secondary School.

The detailed construction plan, signed off by the council in March 2024, had previously been put forward for funding under the PRR but was not selected.

According to Gondomar City Council, the school’s renewal missed out on the PRR-backed works despite the project’s “technical merit and maturity”, because the “available budget allocation” under Programme Escolas – Notice No. 02/2025 had already been used up. In this new submission, the council is again working from the same basis as before: the “full refurbishment” of the school.

Funding pressures and responsibility

“Trata-se de uma obra de uma dimensão apreciável, para a qual temos alguma dificuldade de tesouraria para avançar sem ter a garantia do Governo”, said Gondomar’s mayor, Luís Filipe Araújo. “É bom recordar que esta obra e o respetivo financiamento são da total responsabilidade do governo”, he added to JN, in comments made at the end of June.

Valbom Secondary School works: budget, scope and timeline

The eligible investment set out in this latest application totals around three million euros (2.960.475,65 euros), with 100% funding.

If the application is approved, the council says works are scheduled to begin in December 2026, with completion expected in February 2028.

The project aims to modernise infrastructure, improve energy efficiency and accessibility, and refresh teaching and learning spaces.

As the municipality explains, Programme Escolas is a second funding route for interventions across the public school estate, designed to ensure continuity of the investments set out in the Sectoral Agreement signed between the Government and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities.