‘Mistakes were made’

Mistakes were made in November 2018 when members of Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board approved a plan to amalgamate two secondary schools in west Cavan to make way for a new school in Ballyconnell.

The admission came at last week’s meeting of CMETB when the plan was formally scrapped over five years later and following major public outcry and controversy.

Members felt they had an opportunity to “right a wrong” in voting to bin the proposal.

While the 2018 motion received unanimous approval, the latest motion still passed by majority vote.

Some board members felt that, in hindsight, members who attended the ‘special meeting’ at Ballyconnell’s Slieve Russell Hotel in 2018, were not fully briefed on the complexities involved.

Having visited the newly opened Coláiste Dun a Rí college earlier, and with gleaming architectural features still etched on their collective minds, members quickly rubberstamped the ambitious promise of a new €11M school for Ballyconnell, albeit at the expense of St Bricin’s in Belturbet and Bawnboy’s St Mogue’s College.

Also that same day, at Cavan’s Hotel Kilmore, by way of briefing prior to the formal ETB meeting, a small gathering were given a preview as to what would later be unveiled in the Slieve Russell.

In attendance in the Kilmore were the ETB Chief Executive John Kearney and several senior colleagues, some ETB board members, as well as local elected Oireachtas members and councillors specific to the Cavan-Belturbet area. The latter grouping had been invited by email the previous Saturday.

Those aghast at the proposal were stunned into momentary silence. The first to speak was Fianna Fáil TD, Brendan Smith, followed by the late Sean Smith. Both vehemently opposed the announcement on behalf of the west Cavan communities served by St Bricin’s and St Mogue’s.

The Bawnboy brothers challenged the validity of the blueprint presented - the successful merger of St Tiernach’s with St Patrick’s High School in Clones in 1993 to form Largy College, which later moved to the new school building on Annalore Road in January 2003. The first point made was that those two schools had sat side by side, not almost 20 kilometres apart.

The plan was later formally presented at the Slieve Russell CMETB meeting, complete with a cogent Powerpoint presentation, and it was passed.

The aim was to have the new school built by 2024 subject to the approval of the Department of Education.

Approval would eventually be given during the tenure of then Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, passed through before a new ETB board replete with new members opposing the merger, was ratified in August 2019.

Despite strong and increasingly vocal objections, the Department went on to enlist professional acquisition management firm, Duff & Phelps, to try secure, as a matter of “priority”, a new school site in Ballyconnell Town.

In the meantime, active community groups, led by the Save Our Schools committee, set about systematically dismantling the arguments for consolidating St Bricin’s and St Mogue’s; and last September Cllr John Paul Feeley (FF) successfully forced through a motion before Cavan County Council calling on the local ETB to formally annul its merger plans.

At last week’s board meeting, at the ETB’s Monaghan HQ, members were presented with two motions. Both angled for the same outcome - that the decision of November 26, 2018, be rescinded by the ETB once and for all.

Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly opened by saying it was her belief “that before the end of this board’s term, we must right a previous wrong. I respectfully ask that we, the board, reverse the decision of November 26, 2018.”

“Engagement and consultation” with the communities affected by the decision, it was said, was “insufficient”, and that in her opinion, the board “at the time of the decision were not informed of the full facts”.

Cllr O’Reilly, who for some time stood alone as the only descenting voices in the wake of the Slieve Russell meeting, stated both communities had “rallied”.

She said: “They have fought courageously to save their respective schools, they have proven their arguments. Enrolments and investment in both schools have increased and nothing has progressed on the amalgamation.”

Despite voting with the group in late November 2018, Cllr O’Reilly was excoriated behind closed doors for expressing an alternative point of view to the CMETB narrative, including at several in-committee meetings and in front of other board members as well.

Now, with the tide changing and numbers stacked in her favour, she told last week’s meeting: “The people need security and assurance that the decision will not prohibit any further improvements for both schools down the line.”

The second motion was by Fianna Fáil’s Áine Smith, who took the place vacated by her late father on the educational authority.

A teacher at St Mogue’s, she spoke of the “commitment” provided by Minister for Education Norma Foley in September 2021, at a meeting organised by Deputy Brendan Smith and attended by local councillors and community representatives, when she impressed upon them the onus for the communities of Belturbet and Bawnboy to support their own schools.

Since then enrolments increased and both sites have witnessed significant investment, with new modular accommodation added in Belturbet, and similar works underway at Bawnboy.

The latest Census figures (2022) provide optimism too, with more than 370 children aged under 19 years living in Belturbet and its environs; while in Bawnboy, in the heat of the campaign to save their school, the village put out a successful call out to attract more families to come live in the area.

Cllr Smith said, for many decades, St Bricin’s and St Mogue’s had “served their communities well”, and complimented the ETB for backing recent investment.

Cllr Smith, who appeared overwhelmed with emotion soon after the final vote passed, concluded by saying she is proud to work, as her father did, for the betterment of both schools.

“They are an integral part of our communities in west Cavan and will continue to be important focal points. I believe the decision of the previous ETB was a wrong one.”

Others who campaigned strongly against the merger were Independent Brendan Fay and Patricia Walsh (FG). Both supported the motions tabled at the Monaghan meeting.

Instead of looking back, Cllr Fay chose to look ahead with an air of optimism. He said there was a “buzz” about both schools at present. “It’s absolutely fantastic. There’s a lot happening.”

He said board members were told that, to close both schools and build afresh in Ballyconnell, was a “win-win” situation. “We have changed that mindset.”

Cllr Walsh recalled that news of the merger created unimaginable “concern” in the areas affected. She too praised the positive intervention of Minister Foley, and credited “the hard work these communities have put in” subsequently.

Kingscourt’s Clifford Kelly (FF), who in the past supported the amalgamation, openly admitted: “I believe now that we made a mistake.”

Cllr Carmel Brady (FG), who has been on the Board of Management at St Bricin’s for the past 10 years, said the merger proposal “sounded wonderful”. She said the argument still holds in the sense that the ETB must do what is necessary to provide the best opportunities and standard of education for children across the two counties.

While issues existed in the past, she said now they were “different schools”.

Her party colleague Madeleine Argue still believes the merger “was a good decision”, and highlighted the need for improved second level special needs facilities in the wider West Cavan area.

Sinn Féin’s Colm Carthy, a board member in November 2018, said the plan was “landed on us” and was “sold to us that the proper representations had taken place”.

It was only after the meeting ended that he found out school staff and the communities hadn’t been informed. “They were never pushing for this.”

He flipped the script on what has transpired since, suggesting the threat of the proposed merger had seemingly “benefited” both schools in the long run.

School reps Sean Fagan and Joe McGrath also commented, the latter saying the proposal appeared “very plausible” and was “supported in good faith”.

“Within six hours, I knew we’d made a decision on something that didn’t hold water,” he recalled.

ETB chair, Carrickmacross Fianna Fáil councillor P.J. O’Hanlon, seconded that opinion, saying members had voted on “what was put in front of us at the time”.

Teachers’ rep Michelle Flynn highlighted the meeting at the Hotel Kilmore.

She said the ETB needed to “learn from this experience”, and if any similar proposals were to be made, that “all cards are on the table”.

Recently appointed CMETB Chief Executive, Fiona McGrath, said the decision taken was not on her watch. But she was supportive of the board members’ rights to reverse it.

“It will be up to us to send it into the department, whatever they will do with it,” she said of the vote outcome, which was approved by majority, with several board members abstaining.

“I have heard what all of you have said. The one thing I will say to you is that CMETB will always put the learners first, and we will support all of our schools in equal measures as to their needs and requirements, subject to funding, and approval, and sanction. What impact the motion will have in the department and their mindset, changes in government and personnel and all those things, none of us can predict.”