'Intolerable' challenges facing Mayo school - RTÉ report
A RTÉ news team has been shocked by a discovery while carrying out research into Castlebar Educate Together National School's battle for a stand-alone new school building.
They found that an archway used by pupils to access one of their three campuses in the county town leaves a lot to be desired.
The pathway between Cavendish Lane and the school's upstairs premises at the rear of Hopkins Road was found to be in a particularly dirty and smelly condition due to the presence of a large faeces, which has since been cleaned up.
Emma O'Kelly, RTÉ education correspondent, said she and her camera team were taken aback by the discovery.
She outlined: "At breaktime twice a day fifth class pupils pass through a filthy public alleyway in the town, across a main street, and along the back of a large supermarket where trucks make deliveries, to get to the school playground.
"RTÉ News visited the school on Friday and saw broken glass, cigarette butts, discarded beer bottles, and human excrement in the alleyway. The children saw all this too."
Speaking to The Connaught Telegraph, she elaborated: "It's totally unacceptable when you consider that school children are expected to use this alleyway on a daily basis.
"I have not come across this kind of situation before and it demonstrates the school's vulnerabilities in having to operate from three campuses, none of which are in their own ownership.
"I have been following the school's struggles over the last eight years since they were offered a totally unsuitable building a number of miles from Castlebar town centre," she said.
The report comes as representatives of the Castlebar school are due to meet Education Minister Norma Foley tomorrow (Wednesday) in regard to her department's delay in fulfilling a promise some years ago to provide a new school building.
A school delegation had planned to protest outside Dáil Éireann on May 21 last to highlight their frustrations at having to operate in three campuses in the town - Marsh House, the old Hat Factory and the aforementioned upstairs building, off Hopkins Road.
However, they suspended their plans after the minister agreed to meet members of the school's board of management.
Sarah Calvey, school principal, said she looked forward to hearing the minister's plan for the delivery of the promise made to parents and pupils in 2022.
She stated the findings by RTÉ underlined the difficulties the school and its pupils faced on a daily basis due to having to operate from three different buildings some distances apart.
It is understood the school's preferred location for a new school building is the former Hat Factory at Newport Road, where one of their campuses is currently located.
The school was allocated €300,000 to renovate the site, but the board of management believe it would be better to use this money towards purchasing the property and constructing a state-of-the-art school there.
In her report headlined 'Castlebar school in appeal over 'intolerable' accommodation', Emma Kelly wrote the following.
A primary school in Castlebar has appealed to the Department of Education to purchase a site in the town as a matter of urgency so that a purpose-built school can be constructed for it.
It has also appealed for a temporary solution for next year to put an end to what it says is an intolerable accommodation crisis.
Castlebar Educate Together is currently using spaces in three different premises spread across the town.
They include two rooms in what was a café and café kitchen on a main street, three classrooms and a staffroom in a cramped and damp listed building, and two more classrooms in a mostly derelict former hat factory a ten minute walk away.
At breaktime twice a day Fifth class pupils pass through a filthy public alleyway in the town, across a main street, and along the back of a large supermarket where trucks make deliveries, to get to the school playground.
RTÉ News visited the school on Friday and saw broken glass, cigarette butts, discarded beer bottles, and human excrement in the alleyway. The children saw all this too.
The classrooms in the former hat factory are used by the school's Junior and Senior Infant classes. They are covered by a large industrial metal shutter that needs to be lifted to give access to the rooms. It takes the children and their teachers and SNAs ten minutes to walk from the school yard at Marsh house to their classrooms.
Children have to pass through a dirty alleyway to access classrooms
The school has appealed to the Department of Education to find a solution that will allow all of its pupils to be educated together as soon as possible.
The 140 pupil school is just eight years old and has endured accommodation problems for all of that time.
Its establishment was delayed for a year after patron body Educate Together turned down the offer of a disused former Catholic primary school eight miles outside the town. At the time that property was described as remote, neglected and unfit for purpose.
Principal Sarah Calvey said the Department of Education then spent €500,000 renovating a listed building in the town that was never going to be suitable for the school.
Because the building is listed there were limitations on how the internal layout could be altered.
Marsh House is still the main home of the school but its classrooms are less than half the recommended size for a classroom and they have no sinks or other basic amenities that are standard in most classrooms across the country.
First, Second, Third and Fourth class children learn in three classrooms at Marsh House. In one classroom the plaster is coming off the wall due to a leaky gutter that has now been repaired and a dehumidifier is being used to reduce humidity.
Fourth class occupies a room that is an 'L' shape. Children sit around three tables, but pupils at two of the tables cannot see each other due to the shape of the classroom.
"The kids are very engaging and they do their best", teacher Declan Howley said, "but it’s really difficult for them. It's very easy for the children to switch off, to disengage from their learning because they can't see each other. If we want to do something like circle time, we can't do it because the children can't see or hear each other.
"We have told them [the Department of Education] time and again for eight years that we need a new school, that we need better classrooms, but they are not listening to us", Ms Calvey said.
The school is housed in three different spaces in the Mayo town
Standing in a classroom in Marsh House she pointed to the damp wall and an electrical cable running across the room to the dehumidifier beside the wall. She explained that the only plugs are at the "teaching" side of the room.
"Even in summertime there is water pouring down. The dehumidifier has to run all day so there isn't moisture in the air for the children."
In the lobby downstairs where the school secretary works, the air feels laden with moisture. The building is so cramped that Ms Calvey says she has no dedicated office to work out of.
"Eight years ago the department told us that this was a four classroom school, but this is a half size classroom, it is 33 square metres when the recommended size is 80 square metres. The children are squashed in here".
But the principal still describes Marsh House as their "best building".
In the former café where Fifth and Sixth class are based, the space where Fifth class learns has no windows or any other kind of ventilation. It does have floor to ceiling glass, but this looks out on to a public way so the blinds that cover the glass are permanently drawn.
"Each time the department says that they are conducting viability studies around the town on sites. But there is no need for that to happen. We’ve told them about this site" Ms Calvey said says of the school’s interaction with the Department.
Now the school has lost patience.
The Department of Education told RTÉ News that "a capital project to provide a new permanent eight classroom school building for Castlebar ETNS" is included in the department’s school building programme pipeline.