– Life along the Slaney

The Board of Management of Gorey Community School is seen in many quarters as the bad guy in the current impasse relating to enrolment in the school – however they seem to be looking out for the welfare of their students which is to be commended.

Anyone who has been in the school when the school bell goes for lunch break will know that 1600 students rushing about is a sight to behold – and to be scared of. To manage and control this number of hormonally imbalanced teenagers is a logistical nightmare I would imagine. To educate this number of students is almost an impossibility.

Yet Gorey Community School continues to surpass expectations and deliver top academic results despite the amount of students it caters for. The staff at the school have to be commended for this achievement as well as the principal Michael Finn, who throughout this debacle has firmly kept his eye on his student’s welfare and nothing else.

The Board of Management decision last Monday week to adhere to their enrolment policy and not permit any more than the sanctioned 270 pupils enter first year has angered and bewildered a lot of parents in north Wexford, but in reality their decision was an easy one.

No official communication had been made between the school or Board members and the Department. Yes John Browne and Seán Connick had received long letters from minister Coughlan thanking them for their interest in this matter and telling them devolved funding would be made available. They were quick to issue a press release basically stating: “Look at us. We’re brilliant. Look what we’ve done for Gorey.”

However a letter to a Wexford TD cannot be brought to the bank by the Board of Gorey Community School. Why did the Minister not contact Michael Finn or the chairperson of the Board, Sr. Kathleen? The only contact the school got was a call from a woman in the building section of the Department who gave some very vague details to the Principal.

This latest mess the Department has made is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with the educational needs of Gorey. That a town the size of Gorey has only one secondary school is ridiculous. Yes the town has experienced a population boom in the past decade, but it’s not as if this was not highlighted to the officials in the Department a long time ago.

A new school has been officially promised for Gorey since 2005. Yet today not a sod has been turned on the proposed site and last week it was revealed that the outline planning permission granted for the school will have to be reapplied for, pushing back any completion date.

The Department ‘promises’ to have a school delivered for Gorey by 2012 – it does not however state when in 2012 this will happen. Going on past performance is it any wonder that the Board of Management didn’t want to accept funding from the Department do to a lack of trust.

If we imagine for a minute the Board decided to take on the extra students and build the new classrooms. What then? More pupils crammed into an already overcrowded space? Would the Department feel as if the problem had been solved and put the completion of the new school on the long finger?

However much parents of the 39 children on the waiting list want them to go to Gorey Community School, surely they want them to go to a Gorey Community School which is not overcrowded and has a Board of Management which is looking out for the welfare of their children.