Long wait over for school extension

GORT Community School opened its new sports and music facilities this year, 10 years after sending its first letter to the Department of Education and Science about problems with PE amenities.

“We did, and still have the use of the nearby Gort Community Centre and whilst it provides an excellent indoor hall area and upstairs area for our canteen, the changing facilities were totally inadequate to meet the needs of a large second-level school,” school principal, Denis Corry explained.
The school began to fundraise in 2001 in an effort to generate enough money to build new dressing rooms.
“We benefited from having then and still, a very active and hardworking parents’ association, as well as a staff, which was eager to put its collective shoulder to the wheel. We had raffles, fashion shows, dog nights and any type of fundraising event, which could generate the much-needed finance. In 2005, the Department of Education and Science approved the plan but it made it clear that the cost of the project would have to be borne by the board of management,” recalled Mr Corry.
By 2006, the school had raised €150,000 when the Department of Education and Science then announced Gort was to get a new extension anyway, which would be fully funded by the State. This was, however, taken off the table nine months later.
“We received a much-needed boost when Dr Francis Noone, a local doctor from Castletown, Gort, generously bequeathed the sum of €100,000 to the board of management of the school, which subsequently decided that this gift would go towards the funding of our new extension. It was both appropriate and opportune to do so. By way of acknowledgement, the board decided to call the new building the Noone building,” Mr Corry stated.
The school’s new €500,000 extension was officially opened in mid-October. The building includes a new second floor and facilitates a large music room to cater for a growing music department, along with a career guidance suite and a new oratory. These are in addition to the four dressing rooms, two for boys and two for girls, four single-unit changing areas catering for two coaches, a referee and one with disabled access, and the caretaking storeroom and gear room on the ground floor.
The job went to tender in November 2009 and 13 local companies were invited to respond. Seven companies submitted their prices and the successful candidate and lowest respondent was Martin Smyth, Faha, Caher, County Clare. The cost of the extension was €485,000 and €305,000 was generated through voluntary means, including the donation of €100,000 from Dr Noone. The Department of Education and Science picked up the outstanding balance.
“The Noone Building will provide excellent facilities for our young people into the future and our school community of teachers and parents, past pupils and present students have certainly played their part in bringing this project to fruition. They can all be justifiably proud of this achievement,” the school principal remarked.
The site preparations began during the February mid-term break and the building was officially opened on Saturday, October 16.
“The issue of this extension has been a live and very real one since the school opened in 1995. We didn’t have proper changing facilities for our boys and girls, so we put things in motion in 2001 and we started fundraising from there. It has taken almost 10 years to bring it to this point and we would not be here only for the hard work and resilience of the board of management, staff of the school and parents’ association,” Mr Corry concluded.