No progress on school for Johnstown

The prospect of Meath County Council having to look for an alternative site for a new national school in Johnstown, Navan, has been raised this week following what was described as "a frustrating" meeting between council officials and public representatives. Blame for the delay in coming up with a site to accommodate the 500-plus pupils of St Stephen's National School was placed on the Department of Education and Science following the meeting. Cllr Tommy Reilly said that the council and its officials were "no further on" in their attempts to get a site. He said that officials of the council had gone to the Department of Education in Tullamore four years ago with a view to explaining the need for a new national school at Johnstown, one of the fastest-growing areas in Meath. "It is four years since (council planner) Wendy Bagnall and (director of services) Eugene Cummins from the council went to Tullamore to put the case for the new school. Nothing has been heard from the Department since then. I had a notice of motion at the council over two years ago calling on it to compulsorily purchase land for the school. However, the Department said they would have to 'exhaust every avenue' before they would go to CPO. How long are we supposed to wait?" he said. The Navan Fianna Fail councillor said: "As far as I am concerned, the Department has dragged its heels on this. It is frustrating in the extreme. A site had been provided by a landowner in the area but what did the Department do with it? They handed it back and then the school was based in the former St Martha's College, which is totally and utterly inadequate for the needs of this school." St Stephen's principal and Meath County Councillor Jenny McHugh said that the whole narrative of the school from the beginning was around the issue of planning. It had opened its doors in 2003 with 56 children but now had an enrolment of over 500. It was housed in temporary accommodation and the situation had not changed in seven years, she said. "Now the accommodation is no longer fit for purpose due to the 100-plus children who start school every year and the building can no longer accommodate them. The classrooms are too small to cater for the number of children in them. The access to the school is totally inadequate with no parking facilities. The children have no grass area to play on and the building has no disability access," she said. She added that while the houses were built in Johnstown, there had been no land put aside for a school. The issue of school buildings in the Johnstown area needs to be addressed "urgently", she said. Cllr McHugh called on the Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan to come to St Stephen's and "fulfil her commitment to this school...namely the provision of a site for the school for the children of Johnstown". At a meeting of Meath County Council last week, the conditions under which children are being taught in St Stephen's were criticised. Cllr Tommy Reilly said that he thought the council was not taking the schools issue in Johnstown seriously enough. There was a definite need for a new primary school yet nothing seemed to be happening. "There are 600 pupils there. It is the biggest school in the diocese of Meath. There are disabled pupils there who are being taught in an antiquated building," he added. Cllr McHugh said that disabled children were having to be carried up steps in the school. The rain was also coming into the building. She asked councillors to visit the school themselves "and take a look at what is happening". Meath County Manager Tom Dowling said that council officials were liaising very closely with officials of the Department of Education and Science in an effort to resolve the issue.