Navan school principal resigns in wake of hearing

The principal of St Oliver Plunkett National School in Navan, John Hand, has resigned from his position with the school following a disciplinary hearing during which allegations were made against him that he temporarily transferred four children to another school so that it would not lose a teacher, and having a prefab moved from the Navan school to the rear of his home. The resignation, which is to take effect in January 2011, has caused shock and upset among parents because he was a person who had been "kind to the pupils and very approachable to the parents", local councillor, Anton McCabe, said this week. A disciplinary hearing held in July this year found that the principal had enrolled four pupils from St Oliver Plunkett's in another school in Kilmainhamwood, Kells, which was run by Mr Hand's wife, Marie, at the time. Mr Hand had denied the allegations made against him. At the time the enrolments took place (in 2007), the Kilmainhamwood school was listed as having 73 pupils and had failed the previous year to get an extra teacher. The transfer of the pupils (including two of the Hands' own children) was alleged to have taken place to "bump up" the school numbers in Kilmainhamwood, which would gain it an extra staff member. Mrs Hand has left Kilmainhamwood school and is now principal of the Educate Together primary school in Maynooth, Co Kildare. When the school authorities moved to take disciplinary proceedings against Mr Hand, he took a High Court action aimed at stopping the process. He said he believed he would not get a fair hearing. Fr Brendan Ludlow, the manager of the school, denied that Mr Hand would not get a fair hearing. The court was told that a series of complaints had been made against Mr Hand following a report on enrolment matters at the school by the Department of Education and Science in October 2007. During that hearing, Mr Hand denied any wrongdoing. Mr Hand lost his legal challenge, with Mr Justice Daniel O'Keeffe ruling that he had not established any reasonable fear of bias or injustice in relation to the proposed disciplinary hearing. The disciplinary hearing went ahead in July this year. The Catholic church authorities, which run the school, originally decided to suspend Mr Hand as principal in the wake of the disciplinary hearing. However, the authorities agreed to lift the suspension after Mr Hand went on sick leave. He has now resigned from his post and this will come into effect in January 2011. Cllr McCabe said he was aware there had been a legal case involved in the matter but said parents of pupils at the school were "up in arms" at the outcome. He said there was no board of management at the school, an issue which was exercising the minds of many parents at St Oliver Plunkett's NS. Cllr McCabe said that John Hand would be greatly missed from the school because of the way he had run the school and because of the excellent relationship he had with pupils and their parents. The acting principal of the school is one of its teachers, Mairead Traynor. She will remain in the position pending the advertising of the principal's post.