SEPTEMBER OPENING IS A BITTER BLOW FOR PRINCIPAL
PRINCIPAL Gearóid O Ciarán will miss out on leading pupils into their new school building by a matter of months, as news emerged that the doors will not open until September.
Mr O Ciarán retires at the end of this academic year, following 27 years at Coláiste Ráithín. The campaign for a new school building has lasted just as long. The current premises on Florence Road and subsequent prefabs nearby were always supposed to be temporary. Parents, teachers and the principal have sought a new home ever since.
Carillion, developers of the secondary school, Ravenswell National School, and four other school buildings in the country, went into liquidation in January of this year. Stakeholders heard last week that it will be September before they move.
Coláiste Ráithín is complete, and a small amount of work still needs to be done at Ravenswell.
GEARÓID O CIARÁN has been principal of Coláiste Ráithín since it opened in ‘ temporary’ accommodation 27 years ago.
Disappointingly, he will have retired by the time the school gets to move into its new building because of the collapse of Carillion earlier this year.
DIF, the public private contracting company, has informed stakeholders they are aiming to open all six school buildings by the beginning of the coming school year, with the most advanced schools, Coláiste Raithín in Bray and Loreto College in Wexford to be delivered earlier in the summer. A small amount of work remains to be done at the new Ravenswell site, also in Bray.
‘We were down at a meeting in Tullamore on Wednesday,’ said Mr O’Ciarán yesterday (Tuesday). ‘We won’t be moving in until September.’
He said that tenders have gone out for the completion of work, and while earlier statements led the school community to believe they would be separated from the bundle, that appears not to be the case in effect.
‘ They gave us no indication of how long it will take them to select a contractor,’ said Mr O’Ciarán. ‘It certainly won’t be this academic year. It’s terribly disappointing. We thought we would be in by Easter at the latest.’
He said that it’s a bitter blow for the students, who were looking forward to the move, particularly those in sixth year who, like their principal, won’t inhabit the new facility.
‘In terms of financing, we are in fact still a part of the group. Even though both our school and Loreto in Wexford are both complete, we are told we can’t proceed until they have tenders for completion of the entire project.
‘ They are saying we will be prioritised, but it doesn’t mean very much. If we get the keys in the middle of June most of the students will be on their holidays and the rest doing their exams.’
Mr O’Ciarán will certainly visit, but won’t be working at the new school. The campaign for a new building has been under way for almost three decades now, since Coláiste Raithín opened on Florence Road. ‘ The daughter of a past pupil is now in her Leaving Cert year,’ said the principal.
Principals of all the schools had heard at an earlier meeting late last month with the Department of Education and Skills and the National Development Finance Agence, that talks were being held with original contractors Sammon Construction.
An earlier fee proposed by Sammon was not acceptable to DIF. It emerged in January that one of the project partners for the Bray buildings and four others had gone into liquidation, days before keys were due to be handed over. Shortly after that, Sammon left the site.