Blow for Navan special school as campus plan suffers setback

Plans for a long-promised replacement for St Mary's Special School at Johnstown, Navan, failed to materialise during crucial talks about future educational needs in the town between members of Navan Town Council and officials of the Department of Education and Science. Although Navan is to get two new schools - a secondary and a primary - on a site at Johnstown, the failure of the department to make any commitment to the special school for children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities in the first phase of an educational campus there has angered public representatives and severely disappointed campaigners for a new special school. One member of the delegation, Cllr Tommy Reilly, harshly criticised the department, accusing it of of "dangling" the prospect of a new special school at Johnstown in order to get it through planning obstacles on a projected site there, then "dropping it" as soon as those difficulties were resolved. He challenged the officials to come to Navan to see for themselves the kind of conditions being endured by pupils and staff at the temporary building in Johnstown. Navan Town Council members, led by Navan's Mayor, Cllr Anton McCabe, and including Cllrs Shane Cassells, Tommy Reilly, Francis Deane, Jenny McHugh, Joe Reilly and accompanied by three Meath County Council officials, met Department of Education officials in Tullamore. The green light for delivery of a major education campus at Johnstown was given at the end of last August when two objectors to a proposed compulsory purchase order (CPO) on land in the area withdrew their objections in the middle of a Bórd Pleanála hearing in the town. The Fianna Fail members of the Tullamore delegation - Cllrs Shane Cassells and Tommy Reilly - did not hide their disappointment last week over the future status of St Mary's Special School. The department will submit plans for the secondary and primary schools with Navan Town Council in the next few weeks. Under a Department of Education "fast-track" scheme, construction work on the two schools will start in January 2013 and the schools are expected to be finished and ready for occupation by September of that year. However, there is no mention of St Mary's Special School in the first phase of the proposed campus. The two FF councillors accused the department of using the promise of a new special school as a way of getting through planning obstacles. The department had committed itself to a capital spend over the next five years but "would not give us a financial commitment on St Mary's", they claimed. Cllr Reilly said: "The people at St Mary's have been waiting 30 years for a new school. It is not right that the Department and the Minister, Ruairi Quinn, are not progressing this school with the same haste as the secondary and primary (the replacement for St Stephen's NS)," he said. However, Cllr McHugh, who is also principal of St Stephen's National School, said that while the special school would not come in the first phase, she never expected it do. "I have no doubt about the department's commitment to the building of the special school. Obviously, pupils of a special school have special needs and they have to be met in a certain way. "It is better that we take our time and make sure the school is delivered in a proper way. I am naturally pleased that St Stephen's is to get a new school but It is fantastic for Navan that we will also get a secondary school. That is real progress. It is good that the construction work will provide jobs during the building period," she said. The board of management of St Mary's Special School, in a comment on the results of the Tullamore meeting, said it was pleased to know that the Dept of Education and Skills planned to build a new school campus in Johnstown which would see the provision of new primary, secondary and special needs schools on the same site. "The board is grateful for the support it has received to date from all the Navan Town Councillors as it strives to provide a new school for the 70 special needs children who attend from all parts of County Meath. The board recognises the need for the provision of both primary and secondary Schools in the Johnstown area. However, the need for the provision of a new special school is equally urgent. It is essential that the complex educational needs of the children and young adults with moderate and severe to profound disabilities and autism are not set aside," a statement issued by the board added. The board said that, in the New Year, it intended to engage with all elected representatives in order to ensure that the urgent needs of St Mary's Special School were prioritised "as a matter of real urgency". It said that it was "truly grateful for the wonderful support it has received to date from Navan Town Councillors. "We have no doubt that this support will remain steadfast as we continue to campaign for the appropriate and safe school facilities which our 70 special needs children urgently require".