Call for action on Quin school extension

THE Board of Management at Scoil na Mainistreach in Quin has highlighted the pressing need for the national school to be extended and has urged for the Department of Education to make this move sooner rather than later.
Despite lodging an application for an extension with the department in 2001 and following this up with a detailed application in 2005 outlining projected enrolment figures up to 2014, the school remains on the to-do list.
With numbers having jumped dramatically from 148 pupils in 2005 to 224 this year and with projected enrolment at 250 for September, school principal Anne Fitzpatrick is concerned that temporary prefabs are no longer sustainable.
“Small schools have received devolved grants and we would ask the department to grant these devolved grants to medium-sized schools. We are in a situation where our only option is to wait in this queue. It’s very frustrating that we have to operate in substandard and cramped conditions. We need to do this for our students and for future students coming through the school,” Ms Fitzpatrick stressed.
The school was told that due to a lack of funding, their plans for an extension were put on hold. Scoil na Mainistreach currently has seven prefab facilities and the department has acknowledged there is a deficit of mainstream accommodation.
Ms Fitzpatrick said, “We are now queued with the other schools. We are trying to achieve permanent accommodation for our students. We want to highlight our frustration that our teachers are teaching in overcrowded and cramped conditions.
“We are getting temporary accommodation and the department has acknowledged there is a deficit of mainstream school accommodation. What is happening now is that there is a fear that we will run out of space for these Portakabins. We have three learning support teachers, two of whom are working in tiny Portakabins that have been converted for learning support and I, myself, have an office in one of these Portakabins,” Ms Fitzpatrick stated.
Speaking about the parents’ concerns, Margaret Frain, chairperson of the Scoil na Mainistreach Parents’ Association said, “As parents, we are frustrated at the length of time it is taking to extend the school”.
“We were promised this in 2001 and we haven’t got any further. We were also promised a technical visit this year and that hasn’t happened. We’re extremely frustrated. Three of my children are currently in the school and two are educated in prefabs. The overcrowding is a worry.
“My son’s class in the main building has no cloakroom, so there’s nowhere to put coats and so hurling gear, coats, school bags and 30 students are all in the one classroom; that has to be a health and safety issue.
“My son’s cloakroom is actually converted for learning support. My youngest starts school in September and there are 41 junior infants, so where are they all going to go,” she asked.
Ms Fitzpatrick explained that in 2001 the school began the process of seeking departmental approval for an extension and that this was followed up in 2005 with a detailed application, projecting enrolment figures up to 2014.
“We are currently on target with those projections. We outlined that there was a need for a principal and 12 teachers in the school. We currently have a principal and eight teachers. We also have three learning support teachers, who are not factored into that equation and there are no permanent facilities for those teachers as we speak.
“In 2006, the Department of Education and Science approved the need for 12 teachers and they were due to begin the process and in June 2008, this was cancelled and there has been no change in our status four years later. We had been promised a technical visit early in 2010 and there has been no sign of that,” Ms Fitzpatrick explained.
The school is currently seeking planning permission to install two new prefabs to replace an existing prefab, which is 40 years old.
Ms Fitzpatrick outlined that the board of management has envisaged an upwards extension of the school, developing it from a bungalow style building to a two storey building, so as not to take from the recreational space on site.
The parents’ association is now calling on the department to carry out the technical visit immediately and to get the ball rolling on the project.
“Quin is growing enormously and with the cost of all the prefabs we would have a new school by now. In this day and age you think something would be done about the prefabs. The parents are frustrated with all the promises and that it’s still not getting anywhere. We would be calling on the department to carry out their technical visit as soon as yesterday and we are currently in the process of drafting a letter to them on this. We want action taken on it,” Ms Frain concluded.