‘Distress’ at talks on school closure
GOVERNORS at one of Southport’s oldest schools say they are distressed after Sefton Council “decided to go to consultation over its future” without telling them.
According to documents which first appeared on the council’s website last week, St Teresa’s Catholic infant school, in Birkdale, could close, or have to merge with a nearby school, because of serious financial pressures.
The council said the school had written to them stating that it could not balance its books and wanted the possibility of a merger with neighbouring Catholic primary school, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School, to be explored.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Sefton Council said governors had formally written to them, “requesting permission to begin a statutory process to consult on a number of options”.
These include: St Teresa’s school to merge with Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic school, but continuing to operate from both sites.
A merger with Our Lady of Lourdes, with all pupils located on the Our Lady of Lourdes site, on Grantham Road.
Closure of St Teresa’s school.
But, on Friday, parents and pupils of St Teresa’s received letters, which read: “We were distressed to learn Sefton Council has decided to go to statut ory consultation, re the future of St Teresa’s, without informing either governing body of their intention to do so.
“As you are aware, staff and governors from both schools have recently been working very closely with Maureen Hillsdon and the senior leadership team from Our Lady of Lourdes, sharing their time and expertise with St Teresa’s in order to plan a secure future for Catholic education in Birkdale.
“We have always informed parents and staff of any possible changes as soon as it has been feasible to do so.
“Therefore, for some of you to read about this consultation in the press or on social media is absolutely not acceptable. We are aggrieved and exasperated on your behalf.”
Southport Liberal Democrat councillor John Pugh called it a “colossal failure in communication”, saying that the “gem” of a school had been “put at risk by failure on somebody’s part to communicate properly”.
St Teresa’s Governors met on June 19 to consider the school’s financial position and they were unable to set a balanced budget.
The school has a forecast deficit for 2019/20 of £66,000, even after reducing its budgets, as far as possible.
The report is due to go before the council’s cabinet committee today for a decision.
ARE you affected? What do you think? Please email us at: seftoncommunities@ trinitymirror.com