AN Educate Together school in Glenageary staged a coffee morning last week to help raise additional funds to pay for an extension to their school building.
Teachers at the Dalkey School Project claim that some students are currently being taught in the corridors because of the lack of space.
According to the school, the coffee morning last Friday was both a fundraiser and an event to raise awareness of the financial predicament facing the school.
“We require extra investment in the project to comply with fire planning and disability access regulations,” Rachel Heffernan, a parent and a member of the school extension committee, said. “From a logistical point of view, students being taught in corridors is having a negative impact on their education.”
Ms Heffernan said that all local public representatives had been contacted about the problem and invited to the coffee morning.
“Cllr John Bailey came to the school to see if he could help and Deputies Maria Bailey, Richard Boyd Barrett and Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor have submitted parliamentary questions in the Dáil,” Ms Heffernan added.
“I suspect the department is looking for value for money, but we are a tight space and the hexagonal size means conventional classrooms won’t fit,” added Miriam Hurley, the school’s principal.
Principal Hurley explained that the building dates back to the 1970s and that the inability of the school to provide additional funding would mean that certain students would continue to be taught in the corridors.
“We have done our upmost to get a design that reduces the cost,” she said. “But I am confident that the funding needed for the four-room extension will be approved by the department as relatively, it is a small amount of money for a massive Government.
“We have 200 people on our junior infants’ waiting list and we can only accommodate 30 of them, while operating on a first come, first served basis with a sibling’s clause.”
Ms Hurley said children in the school were holding presentations at the coffee morning and 6th class students would be having a discussion on mental health.
“I’m proud to work with the parents to achieve this extension,” Ms Hurley declared.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that in 2013, the department had approved funding for the Dalkey School Project to construct two mainstream classrooms and two resource rooms.
“A senior architect from the department visited the site and advised the school how this could be achieved on what is a tight site,” the spokesperson stated. “In 2014 the level of grant aid was increased by 86 per cent to address increased construction costs, fees and a deferred Summer Works Scheme project.”
In August 2016, the school submitted the tender report for the works and a request for a further uplift in funding of 67 per cent in the level of grant aid approved in 2014.
“To assess this, the department sought copies of the plans for the proposed extension,” the spokesperson added. “It was discovered that the accommodation being provided was not the accommodation that had been approved.
“While the approved resource rooms were included, it transpired that the approved mainstream classrooms to provide extra teaching spaces for the pupils were not included at all and instead, a range of ancillary accommodation was planned including a new principal’s office, secretary’s office, staffroom and staff car parking.
“The department has refused the funding uplift because the school authority is not providing the accommodation it applied for and which it is still stating is urgently required,” the spokesperson insisted. “This problem can be solved by the school authority delivering the accommodation it was approved and the original remains available for this.”
The Department cannot confirm the level of grant aid provided to the school as this is still subject to a tender process for the approved works.
REPORT: Andrew Ralph