Cutbacks stall new Longwood school plans

Plans for a new campus for St Fintina"s Post-Primary School in Longwood have been halted after the Department of Education issued a letter to County Meath VEC asking it not to conclude negotiations on the purchase of a 10-acre site for the new school. CEO of Meath VEC, Peter Kierans, said they were 'very disappointed' as they had 'done a lot of preparation to get to this point' but regarded it as a 'hiccup along the way rather than a full stop'. The Commission on School Accommodation Needs by the Department of Education published its report three years ago and recommended a 500-pupil school for St Fintina"s. Mr Kierans explained that work commenced on identifying a site and the vendors were brought together and prices for the purchase were agreed. One of the requirements was that schooling in the area be on a campus-style arrangement and the VEC chief executive said this had taken 'co-ordination and co-operation' but it had 'all jogged along successfully and was brought to a conclusion'. According to Mr Kierans, the final part in the equation was the re-zoning of the land at Enfield Road for schooling, and this also was done. 'All that could be done to set it up speedily has been done. We were just waiting for the letter to give approval to conclude the deal,' he said. However, as a result of Government cutbacks, the Department of Education has now directed that the purchase be put on hold. 'We were told not to conclude negotiations at this time but it did not say it was stalled completely,' said Mr Kierans, who added that they are treating this as a 'setback rather than the end of the road'. He said he understood that there are strange circumstances in the national finances. 'This is a hiccup along the way rather than a full stop,' he added. He said the school community is very disappointed but that they would be 'doubling their efforts to move it on'. Contracts had not been signed for the purchase of the land, and while the owners are free agents and could sell at any time to another party, Mr Kierans said he does not anticipate this and said there is a lot of goodwill towards the school project. At present, some of the students are in the permanent school structure but more than half are being accommodated in prefabs on a confined two-acre site in Longwood. The school does not have any playing pitches and has to move off-site for football matches. The school is currently full and has 160 students but does not have an assembly hall. Mr Kierans said that, even if they got the go-ahead from the Department tomorrow to purchase the site, the new school would still be four years away. The home economics, computers, science and woodwork rooms have all being refurbished in the past four years so they are modern rooms and Mr Kierans said that principal Tom Stack is 'running an exceptional school'. The VEC chief said there is no doubt that demand is there for the new school and that they were trying to move the project on rather than numbers having to be turned away and people being left unhappy. He said the VEC would be raising the matter 'proactively at official and political levels' to get the matter resolved.