Protest is held to get new school

Callum Lavery

OVER 650 Rush residents held a march recently to protest the lack of progress in providing a desperately needed new school for the town. 

Students, staff, parents and friends marched from the gates at St Joseph’s Secondary School to a site promised for the new school in 2007. 

This year over 100 families were unable to gain first year places in the school as it received almost double the number of applications they were able to provide for.

A campaign, launched by the school, managed to secure four temporary classrooms for September 2019 but local school numbers show this will not be enough. 

Rush resident and Principal of St Joseph’s, Patricia Hayden, highlighted the need to maintain pressure for the new school. 

“It has been a difficult number of weeks since we were forced to tell parents there were only 120 places for 224 applicants,” said Ms Hayden.

“While the temporary classrooms offer some relief, it is only a short-term fix. The increase in demand comes on foot of an explosion of population in this region that will see similar demand annually for the foreseeable future. 

“Rush was promised a new school with a site chosen and procured but there is a long way to go before that is a reality.” 

Ms Hayden said the current building is not fit for purpose, causes great strain on staff and students alike, and is small, cold and poorly affecting students’ social lives. “There will be 820 students next year in a school that was built for 375,” she said.

“We don’t have places for lunch, we have a canteen that is in a hallway, there is a general purpose hall where we have all our assemblies, there is no place for the students to actually socialise, they’re in classes all the time.”

Ms Hayden said the building is impossible to heat, leading to great cost to the school.

“It costs a small fortune just to keep a really bad building,” she added.

“How many years do you have to wait? In 2007 in the local development plan our school was designated as the school to grow for Rush and at that stage they were talking space for 800 to 1,000 students. Well I’d say you’re talking about a school for 1,000 to 1,500 now.” 

Carol Martin, a parents’ representative on the board of management and whose daughter attends the school, criticised the current prefabs and shrinking sports grounds available. 

“It’s fine on a sunny day but when it’s raining, they’re (students) getting soaked going from class to class,” said Ms Martin. “The sports grounds have been encroached upon, PE is being affected.”

Chairman of the board of management at St Joseph’s, Senator James Reilly (FG), said: “The whole community is still shocked at how little has been done to put up the new school despite the obvious growth in population. The need for a new school is strongly felt by everyone in and around Rush.”