CBC ‘forced’ to end its role in Carrigaline school

Christian Brothers College in Cork has withdrawn from any role in a planned new secondary school in Carrigaline after claiming to be excluded by the trust body it helped secure approval to open it.

The fee-paying city school has told parents in the area that, despite leading a campaign for the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) that promised CBC involvement in its set-up and running, it has been left out of the plans.

The Department of Education decided last November to approve two new schools in the Carrigaline area to serve the satellite town and Cork’s southside suburbs from 2016. It followed a local process where two prospective patrons asked parents if they would send their child to their respective proposed schools.

The Catholic-faith Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) plan got expressions of interest for 1,466 children, and 781 names were put forward for a multi-denominational Educate Together school. The department decided that demand in the wider area justified both being allowed open a school to cater for up to 600 students each.

In a report recommending both schools, the department said ERST planned full partnership with CBC to ensure its full range of services would support the new school in its start-up phase and after it opens.

But CBC management has written to parents who backed the ERST school to tell them it tried since last November to establish a partnership with the trust body, as outlined to them in writing and at a public meeting last June.

“Despite meetings and correspondence with ERST, in which CBC’s perspective was explained in the plainest terms, this has proved to be impossible. Consequently, I must now advise you that the development of the school is entirely in the hands of ERST and the Department of Education,” wrote principal Larry Jordan and board chair Michael Walsh.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, CBC’s board said it agreed to help ERST’s bid when asked, and Mr Jordan spelled out the partnership with CBC locally.

“As soon as the trusteeship was awarded, ERST began to make unilateral decisions in relation to the establishment of the school without any consultation with CBC or the parents of Carrigaline. This included the naming of the new school without any local consultation,” it said.

The school said it wrote to parents after learning an ERST letter to parents did not mention the absence of a partnership with CBC.

ERST told the Irish Examiner the issue is that of who will advance the new school in Carrigaline.

“This should of course be the people of Carrigaline. As trustees of the new school, [ERST] has started the process of seeking nominations for a steering committee drawn from Carrigaline parents, educational and community interests,” it said.

It said there is no input at this stage from the trustees, and the department is identifying possible sites and the design of a new school.

The department said the issue was brought to its attention and “has sought the views of the ERST in this regard and will consider the position further when it has received those views.”