Successful Ballyshannon auction
More than €18,000 was raised on Saturday night in Dowlings of Ballyshannon in the 'Auction of Promise' run on behalf of the local National School. Some €5,000 of the proceeds came from the programme advertising and sponsorship.
The immediate need was €10,000 to meet the shortfall in funds available and the cost of two new classrooms at the school, a contract worth in the region of €550,000.
The schoolrooms have a target date for completion of the end of March.
From a level of just 34 pupils in 2003 Ballyshannon NS now boasts a roll of 70, and climbing.
"We're now hoping to a fourth teacher in September, which means we need even more accommodation if that happens, so it looks like we'll be still using the prefabs as well," Parents Council chairman Francis Donnelly (pictured on right below with Frank Mitchell) told the Diary.
The increase in student numbers is due to the growing popularity of the surrounding area as a place to live, with many of the new residents coming from as far as Dublin.
They're lucky to have a school in the locality at all, as it was in danger of closing because of declining numbers.
"If it had dropped below the 30 mark, it would have been cut to just one teacher," says Francis, who has been on the Parents Council for two years. "I understand from talking to people who have lived here much longer than me that a decade ago it was in danger of closing, and there was a huge effort by the community to make sure that didn't happen."
He also makes the point that it was the previous Parents Council that started the momentum for the current project. "They were very very strong, they put the foundation into it, and then as extra people came in they were able to put more work into the effort."
It is hard to operate a school of this size at an optimum level. The main difficulty is that the Department of Education will require it to get the numbers up in advance of providing extra facilities.
"The reality is that we could have done with a bit more than the two classrooms, and that could have been provided at a modest extra cost, but it wasn't feasible."
The auction on Saturday night had more than 180 items or services donated, and was conducted by John Maher of Leinster Marts Ltd.
(More pictures later in the week.)
Brian Byrne.
