Educate Together confirms Castlebar school will not open

Educate Together confirms Castlebar school will not open

Anton McNulty

Parents of ten pupils intending to start the new Educate Together national school in Castlebar on Tuesday will have to find alternative schools after it was confirmed the school will now not open.
Educate Together confirmed that ‘with deep regret’ they will not be opening the national school in Castlebar. It was to open on September 1 in the former Burren NS, located five miles from the town.
As reported in The Mayo News on August 11, the old school, which has been closed for 20 years, was offered to the Department of Education by the Archdiocese of Tuam as part of its divestment process. The school is in considerable disrepair, and following consultation with parents, Educate Together said it was not fit for purpose and that accepting it would ‘result in a reckless waste of taxpayers’ money’.
Attempts to find an alternative building were unsuccessful, and Educate Together confirmed it would now not be opening a school in Castlebar for the new school term.
The organisation blamed the Department of Education for the decision, saying it had been issued with ‘an ultimatum’ demanding that it either accept the Church’s derelict premises as permanent accommodation or postpone the opening.
However, in a statement last night, Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan said Educate Together’s comments were “a misplaced effort to apportion blame for the consequences of their own decisions.”
She said the department had ‘done everything possible within the parameters of the divesting process’ to progress the Castlebar project, and that the Department had proceeded with its plans to bring the building back into use on the basis of Educate Together’s acceptance.
However, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Educate Together Regional Development Officer and Fine Gael councillor Jarlath Munnelly disagreed with the Minister’s comments.
“I contest that. We accepted a school in Castlebar … but we expressed our concerns for it,” he said. “We agreed to explore this building with the Department but at no point did we, in writing, accept and say that we thought this was a good option.”
Educate Together announced in May that Achill native Sarah Calvey had been appointed Principal of the proposed school in Castlebar, which was to be the second Educate Together national school to be opened in Mayo.

‘Infuriating’
Parents of the ten pupils who were enrolled and due to start school on Tuesday will now have to make last minute plans to find alternative schools for their children.
One of the parents Tony Geraghty said; “The children of Castlebar have a right to an equality-based education … It is infuriating and frustrating that bureaucracy and lack of imagination have meant that children will be denied such an education for at least another year.”
The first Educate Together school in Mayo at Newtownwhite, outside Ballina, was officially opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny last September.
Alternative locations to the old Burren NS suggested by Educate Together included the old library in Castlebar, but it too was deemed unsuitable. Other facilities suggested to the department included unused rooms at GMIT and HSE facilities.
Educate Together is an NGO that runs learner-centred, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural schools in a partnership model between parents, teachers and pupils.