IRVINE, 8 January 2008 - At a Special Meeting of the Education Executive of North Ayrshire Council at 2.00 p.m.
Present
John Bell, Tom Barr, Margaret McDougall, Father Matthew McManus, Peter McNamara, David O' Neill and John Reid.
In Attendance
C Kirk, Corporate Director and J Leckie, Head of Service (Educational Services); I T MacKay, Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Protective); H Hunter, Principal Accountant (Finance); G Lawson, Corporate Support Manager, P Shiach, Corporate Support Officer; and A Clarke, Communications Officer (Chief Executive's).
Chair
Councillor Bell in the Chair.
Apologies for Absence
Reverend David Karoon.
1. Review of School Provision
Submitted report by the Corporate Director (Educational Services) on the proposals arising from the review of school provision in North Ayrshire.
At a meeting of the Education Executive on 13 November 2007, it was agreed that the following proposals arising from the review of school estate be taken forward for public consultation:-
the building of a new primary school in the Montgomery Park area of Irvine and the future of John Galt Primary School
the amalgamation of Towerlands Primary School with Broomlands and Fencedyke Primary Schools (Irvine)
the amalgamation of Brodick Primary School and Corrie Primary School (Isle of Arran)
the amalgamation of Dreghorn Primary School with Springside Primary School in a new primary school building and
denominational primary school provision in Kilwinning
In terms of the Education (Publication and Consultation etc.) (Scotland) Regulations 1981, interested parties include parents of children attending the schools, Parent Councils, and pupils and staff of the schools involved. The consultative documents attached to the report at appendices 1-5 set out the proposals.
Should the outcome of the consultation process be that the Council agrees to proceed with the closure of Corrie Primary, or the amalgamation of Towerlands Primary with Fencedyke and Broomlands Primaries, in terms of the Education (Publication Consultation etc) (Scotland) Regulations 1981, the consultation documentation in those instances will require to be submitted to the Scottish Government for the consent of Scottish Ministers.
This process is required due to:
(a) the proposed closure of a rural school; and/or
(b) Fencedyke Primary School and Brodick Primary School having 80% occupancy of the school building.
The decision of the Scottish Ministers would then be reported to the Education Executive.
During the course of consideration of the proposed consultation documentation, several amendments, as under, were agreed:-
the closing date for responses to the Consultation Document to be Monday 17 March 2008;
with regard to the proposals for the Montgomery Park area of Irvine and the future of John Galt Primary school, that in terms of paragraph 4, Option 1 be amended to read "this option proposes the rezoning of parts of the Glebe Primary School catchment area to Castlepark to ensure that Irvine Royal Academy sits within its own catchment area";
with regard to the section entitled "Implications" relating to the above proposal, that paragraph 5.1 be amended to read "three proposals";
that the projected respective school rolls be clarified in terms of the proposed catchment area for St Winning's and St Luke's Primary Schools, Kilwinning; and
that with regard to the catchment areas of Dreghorn and Springside Primary Schools, no specific area be identified in the document as the site for a new school.
The Education Executive agreed that (a) the consultative documents, as amended, indicated in appendices 1-5 of the report, be issued to all interested parties, requesting written representation be submitted to the Corporate Director (Educational Services) no later than Monday 17 March 2008; and (b) a report on the outcome of the consultative process be submitted to the Education Executive for consideration.