Dawn of a new era for Scariff College

Scariff Community College will open this Thursday under the new stewardship of principal Angela McNamara and deputy principal, Brian Crossan as the outgoing principal, Sean Daly, and deputy principal John O’Donovan, bade farewell this week.
Ms McNamara is a East Clare woman and comes to the Scariff secondary school from Ennis Community College where she had been deputy principal. She is also a past pupil of Scariff Community College and according to Mr Daly she is looking forward to coming back to her alma mater.
“She has been in to meet the teachers and they had a huge warm welcome for her. She comes with a very high reputation, as does Brian. There are very high hopes that they will carry on all the good work and develop it and make it even better,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brian Crossan, who is originally from Longford but lives in Kinvara, comes to the post from the East Clare Adult and Community Education Centre in Scariff, where he has been director. 
Sean Daly hangs up his boots after 33 years teaching, seven of those as principal in Scariff Community College, and the majority in St Michael’s Community College, Kilmihil and in Kildysart, where he was a business studies teacher and learning support teacher.
John O’Donovan, however, has a 34-year long history with Scariff Community College and he’s not quite finished there yet, although he will officially retire he has decided to carry on in his role as career guidance teacher in a limited capacity until June.
Speaking about the deputy principal, Mr Daly said, “John is an English teacher but he went into career guidance and took over there about eight years ago. He combined the deputy principal and career guidance duties, which was a major contribution to the school over the years”.
While he will be sad to go on one level, Mr Daly said he is glad to be in a position to go while “there’s a bit of life in the old dog yet”.
“I have a number of interests that I plan on pursuing after I’ve had a rest. I’ve had some great times here. We’ve had a lot of development of facilities. It had some very good facilities when I came here, it has a very big campus, there is about 20 acres on the grounds, which is a great asset and a great responsibility, as it needs a lot of maintenance.
“Recently we’ve developed the GAA playing pitch and we have installed a running track, the only one in East Clare and one of my great hopes for the school would be that athletics would develop. There isn’t a great history of athletics in this area and I found that most of the students who were interested in athletics had to go to Ennis or Limerick to join a club and I think we would provide the facilities if one would start and we would support that so hopefully it will happen. It is a basic track, but it is a good surface, it’s well drained so it was a good innovation and it will be a good legacy,” he said.
Mr Daly will also continue to fight the good fight for teachers as the current County Clare branch chairman of the Teachers Union of Ireland.
Even though it’s nationally controversial that people are retiring at the end of February Mr Daly said he is confident that this will be a seamless changeover for Scariff Community College and the retirements will not result in any loss of staff. “The deputy and principal are replaceable anyway and there is one other teacher retiring who will be replaced because our numbers are holding up. The education cut backs are regrettable, we were looking forward to appointing at least one teacher next year but it looks like the opposite now, it looks as though we will have to cut back on hours, but we are one of the lucky schools in that we have an increase in our enrolment over the last few years which has saved us from the worst effects of the cutbacks,” he said.
He described some of the cutbacks as “drastic” in particular the cutting of the career guidance, which he said “is almost a national disgrace”.
“Schools will have a very big dilemma now as to whether to appoint career guidance or how to provide the service when you get no allowance for it,” Mr Daly added.
In departing from the post he has acknowledged the great support and assistance he had received from the VEC, the parents council and the board of management headed by mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Hayes.
Speaking on behalf of the board of management, Councillor Hayes said, “I would like to pay tribute to Sean and to John for all their contribution to Scariff Community College. They have kept a very steady ship and contributed hugely to the improvements in the school. We have a fine modern building and facilities and the sports field has been improved under their stewardship. I would like to wish them health and happiness and the new appointments are a major change for the school and we look forward to working them”. 
Mr Daly also wished Angela and Brian all the very best in their new posts and said, “I’ve really enjoyed it and in every job you have the good and the bad but the good has really outshone the bad. I will miss it, it is nice to have time yourself and I will have very happy memories”.