Greenhills extension
AMID cheers, the Archdeacon, Fr James Lennon, watched by the Mayor, Councillor Fergus O’Dowd, Sr. Elizabeth, the headmistress and the Sr . Provincial of the Presentation Order, Sr. Clement, a native of Drogheda and a Past puil, the first sod of the new extension to Greenhills Secondary School was turned last week..
The extension , which will cost in the region of £400,000, will comprise four new classrooms as well as a number of specialist rooms such as geography room, interview rooms, administration rooms.
However, according to the school’s vice-principal, Mr. Patsy Sweeney, “not one extra place will be made in the school as a result uf the extension.”
Teachers who were present at the ceremony complained that the extension was long overdue because conditions in the school were “chaotic” One teacher claimed that classes were held in every spare inch of space in the building.
“We have no library at present,” she said. The staff have taken it over as a staff room because our own room is used as a classroom. There are even children in the sewing room and canteen,” she added.
The school was originally built to cater for 350 children and now holds 650. The new extension win mean space for the present number but does not allow for expansion. It will be two years before the new building is ready to be occupied.
Most of the cost will be borne by the Department for Education—which has refused to sanction a gymnasium in the new complex—but £110.000 will have to be provided by the community.
The problems, however, were temporarily forgotten as Fr. Lennon drove the spade, specially provided for the occasion by the builders, O’Connor and Bailey, for the occasion, into the ground .