According to the court, an appeal against the judgment can be lodged with Tartu Circuit Court within 30 days. The deadline for filing an appeal is May 30.

Mayor of Toila Municipality Eve East, was satisfied with the court's decision.

East pointed out that when the Toila Council approved the closure of high school in spring 2024 by a vote of nine in favor to seven against (one councilor was absent), the decision was justified not only by the decreasing number of children, but also by the fact that the closure of the high school was a state condition for the receipt a subsidy for the construction of a new school building in Toila.

The closure of the Toila school was challenged in court by 25 parents, whose children attended Toila High School. The court action was based on the grounds of lack of community involvement, that the decision was based on incorrect data and failed to take into account the impact on internal security and the length of children's journeys to attend school.

It was also pointed out that Ida-Viru County is losing its last secondary school with an Estonian-language learning environment, where there are more Estonian-speaking children than Russian-speaking children.

Piret Toovis, a representative of the parents of the Toila school, said she was naturally very saddened by the court's decision. "At first glance, after having read the decision, I can only say that I am pleased the judge agreed with some of our positions," Toovis told ERR.

Toila Municipality has begun the process of closing down the high school section of Toila School, with the institution expected to continue as just an elementary school from the fall of 2026.

Currently, Toila Municipality's only high school has 238 pupils, 201 of which are enrolled in the primary section and 37 in the secondary section. There are 12 students who will graduate this spring. There are 19 pupils in 11th grade, who will complete their upper secondary education at home.

There are six pupils in year 10 who began attending the school in the fall despite knowing that they would have to look for a new school after 11th grade.

This spring, the Estonian Association of Architects, in cooperation with Toila Municipality, organized an architectural competition for the Toila primary school building, with the aim of designing a school to cater for 180-200 pupils and 35 teaching staff.

This spring, the Estonian Association of Architects, in cooperation with Toila Municipality, organized an architectural competition for the Toila primary school building, with the aim of designing a school to cater for 180-200 pupils and 35 teaching staff.

Of the 30 entries, the top prize of €13,000 was awarded to the concept solution "Kooliveer" by Margit Aule, Rasmus Ink, Andreas Krigoltoi, Viktoria Ugur, Carl Deion Jõekallas and Kristi Merilo from LUMIA, Edgar Kaare from TajuRuum and György Jakabfi from Futu.

The second prize of €10,000 was awarded to the work of KUU architects (Liis Juuse, Johannes Madis Aasmäe, Joel Kopli, Koit Ojaliiv and Juhan Rohtla), entitled "Embus", and the third prize of €7,000 was awarded to the work "Horseshoe" (Eva Kedelauk and Kristel Niisuke of Nikita Atikin architects).

According to the plans, the school building, which will be completed in 2027, will cost a total of €7.7 million.

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