Brannoxtown School group wants Archbishop to 'engage' with them
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| Pupils perform at the official opening of the new school in 2013. |
The school closed in December 2017 after beginning the term in September 2017 with just three pupils. This compares to the roll of 110 pupils in 2007 and 2008, and 87 in 2011.
Save Our School Brannoxtown (SOSB) was formed after public meetings in June and July last year, which highlighted a critical position in relation to prospective numbers, failed to find a way to deal with the situation. These meetings resulted in the formation of a Community Liaison Group to work with the school management to try and get commitments from parents on returning their children to the school.
The SOSB group has produced a report outlining the events which led to the closure of a school which had a €500,000 new building provided in 2013. The group blames 'a failure in governance of its patron' which caused parents to withdraw and not enrol their children in the school.
The report is critical of the management of the school since 2011, and says the Patron, who had control of the School Board, 'failed to recognise and act in the face of declining pupil numbers from 2011 to 2017'.
It also details how staff left or took career breaks, 'as a result of difficulties with the Board', which the report also says the Patron allowed to 'operate illegally' as it did not have the required local community representatives.
Other issues outlined in the report are concerns that the Principal 'chose not to fully engage in the local community' and the group expresses its disappointment that despite repeated requests, 'the Principal refused to meet the Liaison Committee to discuss how the school might be saved'.
When the school reopened in September with just three pupils, the Board resigned on the advice of the Patron and the school was operated by a Special Manager.
With the closure of the school, the Principal was placed on a panel and has now taken up a teaching position elsewhere. The SOSB report says that if the school reopens, it is a prerequisite that a new Principal be appointed.
However, despite requests from SOSB to meet the Patron to discuss how the school could be saved, 'he has so far declined to meet us'.
'The Archbishop has repeatedly expressed his willingness to divest catholic schools but has demonstrated reluctance to divest Brannoxtown NS', the report notes.
A new public meeting is being considered by SOSB to establish community thoughts on how to revive a school which 'has been at the centre of village life for well over a century'.
The closure of the school in December has also had a physical consequence, with pipes freezing and bursting in the new building because the heating had been turned off.
