The Domenico Morelli primary school in Via Merliani, in Naples' Vomero district, risks disappearing as an independent school community because of an executive eviction affecting the private building that houses it and the need for fire-safety compliance work.

School principal Marina Esposito says simply moving pupils elsewhere is not enough. In comments reported by Il Mattino, she argues that any solution must preserve the unity of the school, teaching continuity and the educational community built around the Via Merliani site.

An 80-year-old school in a private building

The Via Merliani site is not a purpose-built state school. It occupies a private building made up of seven apartments that has been used for school activities for about eighty years, according to Il Mattino.

That long-standing arrangement is now under pressure on two fronts: an executive eviction pursued by the owners, and the need to bring the premises into line with fire-prevention rules.

The Municipality of Naples has challenged the owners' formal eviction notice and has asked to be allowed to finish the 2026-2027 school year in the building, according to reporting by Fanpage.it on the municipal plan.

The municipal plan: no new enrolments, partial transfer

The plan presented by the Fifth Municipality envisages a gradual downsizing of the Via Merliani site.

It includes a stop on new enrolments at Morelli and the transfer of some classes to the state-owned Belvedere-Falcone complex in Via Aniello Falcone.

According to the president of the Fifth Municipality, cited by Fanpage.it, about half of the pupils could remain at Morelli in 2027-2028, while the remaining classes would be moved. The current third- and fourth-year classes are expected to stay at the Morelli site for that school year, limiting disruption for pupils already in the middle of their primary cycle.

The school's alternative: keep Morelli together

The school's collegial bodies have proposed a different route: create a comprehensive institute and reorganise the existing space so the school can remain united.

The proposal includes converting six laboratories into classrooms and recovering other spaces within the complex to keep the school on a single site and maintain teaching continuity.

Esposito's warning is that dispersing classes without such a unifying framework would dissolve the school's identity: pupils would find places, but the Morelli as a community and teaching project would cease to exist.

What this would mean for families

For parents, the central issue is not only where lessons take place, but whether children stay with the same teachers and classmates.

Under the municipal scenario now on the table, families face a split outcome over the next two school years: completion of the 2026-2027 year at Via Merliani if the city's request is accepted, followed by a partial move to Via Aniello Falcone, with no new first-year classes entering Morelli.

Under the school's proposal, the aim would be to keep groups together in reorganised spaces at Morelli while giving the school a new administrative structure as a comprehensive institute.

What remains undecided

Several key points are still unresolved:

  • The final outcome of the eviction dispute and the date by which the building would have to be vacated are not yet clear.
  • There is no single, formally approved plan establishing the definitive location of all classes.
  • The technical and administrative feasibility of converting laboratories and other spaces has yet to be verified.
  • It is not documented whether the proposal to establish a comprehensive institute has been included in the final school-sizing decision.

For now, the Morelli remains open, but its future depends on the litigation over the building, the municipal reorganisation of school places, and whether a solution can be found that keeps its pupils and teachers together rather than dividing them between sites.