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Cllr Paul Ward is very pleased to announce that the new school building project for St Josephs in Kilcock is now approved to go to tender in March.
“Great result for the Principal Anne, the staff, parents but most importantly the pupils! Thanks to James Lawless TD who I have been working on this with and who brought this up directly with the Minister of Education last week!”
Frank O’Rourke TD has arranged a meeting with the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton TD, his officials, and Kildare County Council to press for permanent school buildings for Celbridge.
“In recent years, we are seeing the requirement for school accommodation grow in Celbridge. At the moment, we have temporary school accommodation for both St Patricks Primary School and Celbridge Community School. We need to put in place a plan to provide permanent school accommodation for both schools.”
“There is no good business case to have temporary accommodation as our school buildings. Our children and teachers deserve permanent structures, with supporting facilities, to cater for the long-term requirement of Celbridge.” Continue reading “Meeting arranged with Minister about School Buildings For Celbridge”
This past week I called on the Minister for Education to act now before schools in the Naas area face an accommodation crisis. There is an urgent need for the Minister and his Department to issue the tender to commence building the new site which will be used by Naas Community College. This is the major delay and as a result of the Ministers lack of action, by 2020, 800 students in the Naas area will be affected.
I have raised this matter in the Dáil with the Taoiseach and Minister for Education. The Minister claims his Department is reviewing its programme for capital expenditure in 2018 and 2019. There should be no need for a review; the department already committed to the school when they ordered it to open up four years ago. The tender must be issued to avoid a schools crisis in Naas,
Naas Community College has opened, the patron has a site bought and is ready to go already. Planning permission has been granted by Kildare County Council but we are now facing a situation in which 231 students applied for places in September 2017 and 111 were turned away. There is a primary school, Naas Community National School, co-located on the same temporary accommodation. If this continues, by 2020 we will have 800 students in temporary accommodation that was created for 500. We urgently need the tender to be issued so that the school can proceed to build immediately without any further delay.
For months I have campaigned alongside many concerned parents to lobby the Minister to have his department issue the necessary tender, and I will continue to do so until the tender has been issued.
You can read my transcript of my debate here
James Lawless TD has said that it is paramount that pressure must be kept on the Department of Education to progress the build of Naas Community College as quickly as possible.
There is a considerable demand for places in the school and this is a key part of the educational infrastructure for Naas and the surrounding areas complementing the existing schools by placing a co-ed ETB (Education and Training Board) school into the North Naas area to cater for students from all over the town but also places like Sallins, Kill, Johnstown, Rathmore and all that hinterland.
James said, “The school has received planning permission for a brand new building at Millenium park, Naas and will cater for over 1,000 pupils in a new state of the art building once the construction phase is completed.”
“However the delays have been frustrating for the school community and I have repeatedly brought them to the MInister’s attention. The Department and indeed the ETB are 100% committed to this project, and great progress has been made despite scare-mongering from some opportunistic politicians, however the delays are causing understandable concern for many parents and the wider school community. Continue reading “Pressure on Naas Community College must be maintained – Lawless”
James Lawless TD has called on the Minister for Education to secure approval for four extra classrooms in Straffan National School.
James has met with parents at the school and is adamant that the school currently has the demand for the places.
James said, “From my repeated raising of this issue the Minister is well aware of the capacity issues in Straffan National School. Approval must be secured to allow four extra classes to cater for the growing population. The demand is there and it is now over to the Minister to make the correct decision”.