Jovina Gymnasium in Novi Sad: Students Return Monday

When do students of the Jovina Gymnasium return to their building? On Monday, October 12, 2026. Regular classes at the Novi Sad school start then, ahead of the October 15 deadline the mayor had announced earlier.

For parents, it is a concrete change of schedule: until now, students have attended classes at three locations, in buildings belonging to other secondary schools.

What Has Been Lifted, and What Stays Under Watch?

The reason for the move out was the main dome of the building. According to Mayor Zarko Micin, everything on it that deviated from the building permit has been removed, the height of the dome has been corrected, and a court-appointed expert has inspected the structure. A test load has also been carried out.

The Building Inspection Sector of the City Administration for Inspection Affairs then issued a decision lifting the ban on using the ceremonial hall. In an Instagram post, Micin said:

As I announced, the students and teachers of the Jovina Gymnasium will return to their school even before October 15. The City, the Province and the Republic worked together, along with the school’s management, to bring the students back to their classrooms after two years.

He added that this created the conditions for the return: “This created the conditions for students and teachers to return to the gymnasium building. After all installations are checked, regular classes will begin next week,” the mayor said, stressing that the safety of students and staff is the top priority.

During his tour of the school, Micin said:

From our first conversation with parents and the school principal, what matters most to us is the safety of the children and their return to the Jovina Gymnasium as soon as possible. Today we can say that we have kept our promise and finished the necessary work ahead of the announced deadline. Our students will be back in their school, in their classrooms, with their teachers and friends, and that is what matters most. The City Administration for Inspection Affairs, the Building Inspection Sector, has issued a decision lifting the ban on using the ceremonial hall. After the court expert’s assessment, it was established that the main dome and the work carried out do not endanger the safety of the building as a whole. Over the next six months, changes to the building will be monitored and measured as a precaution.

Touring the school with the mayor were the assistant provincial secretary for education Danijela Kostic, adviser to the president of the Provincial Government Rade Vojnovic, City Council member for education Milica Vucicevic and principal Radivoje Stojkovic. Micin concluded: “We will keep taking all necessary measures so that time spent in the school is safe.”

A restoration of the ceremonial hall, renovation of classrooms and of the sports field have also been announced. Students in the first, seventh and eighth grades will enter for the first time a building in which they have not had classes before.

How Long Did the Move Out Last?

Here the statements differ. Micin speaks of a return after two years. Isidora Radmanovic, the mother of a student, says the students have been dispersed since September 1, 2025, so a little more than a year. The sources do not reconcile the two counts, so we give them as they were stated.

What Does the Student’s Mother Ask?

Radmanovic says that, as a parent, she took part in documenting and reporting irregularities in the school management’s work. In her view, the return to the building, as she put it, “does not erase the past year, does not absolve those who made the decisions and does not answer a single one of the questions that have been asked.” Her account of events is as follows:

• work on the dome was carried out in 2015, while Stojkovic was principal, and the building inspectorate found a deviation from the design of 30 centimeters in height
• in February 2025 the inspectorate ordered that a building permit be obtained, and in May 2025 that the dome be restored to its previous state, and the principal, in her words, complied with neither measure
• in August 2025 the principal requested and received consent to relocate students in order to test the statics of the entire building
• according to documentation the parents obtained, no authority had at that point declared any part of the building unsafe other than the dome and the ceremonial hall

According to her, the Province allocated one million dinars (about 8,500 euros) for a study on statics, and parents found that it covers the dome, not the whole building. Work on the dome, she says, began only in September 2026 and lasted several weeks. Suspended Serbian language teacher Rima Grujic told Danas that the deadline was 40 days and assesses that the problem could have been solved sooner:

What could have been solved back in April 2024 is being solved now, in autumn 2026.

Radmanovic puts questions to the mayor of Novi Sad, the head of the City Administration for Education, the head of the Novi Sad School Administration, the provincial secretary for education and the education minister:

On what basis was almost 59 million dinars allocated for repairing the dome, if in your reply to the request for access to information of public importance you stated that you do not have a study on the dome? Where is the responsibility of Radivoje Stojkovic for work carried out with a deviation from the design, as well as for failing to act on the building inspectorate’s measures? Has the budget been damaged, and has responsibility for the resulting costs been established, and who will bear them? Will the complete documentation on the work, its execution and its financing be available to the public? Why was the work not carried out in the period from February to the end of August 2025, before the start of the school year and the dispersal of students

The figure of almost 59 million dinars, about 500,000 euros, comes from her question and is not a figure confirmed by the authorities.

She adds that the school has had a temporary school board since September 2025, has no constituted parents’ council, and has lost 60 teachers. She calls the return of students fifteen days before the elections part of the election campaign.

In the sources we opened, there is no response from city or provincial authorities to these questions, and no reaction from principal Stojkovic.

What Is Left for Parents Until Monday?

Parents and students held dozens of protests over the move out and demanded the dismissal of principal Stojkovic. Classes in the building start on Monday, and precautionary monitoring of the structure will last for the next six months.