Parents revolt over school relocation plan

Over 3,000 members of the East Meath community have signed a petition opposing plans to relocate the Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School seven kilometres away on the other side of the town.

Devastated parents and students of the school have blasted proposals to relocate the school from its current site at Mill Road, Colpe to the grounds of St Olivers Community College, on the Rathmullen Road, Drogheda.

Furious at the prospect of, in some cases, a 40-minute journey time to the proposed new location, parents have started a campaign to halt the proposed move.

"Under no circumstances will our children relocate to a distant, traffic-congested, overcrowded school playing field on the far side of Drogheda. We also ask that the Board of Management join us in publicly rejecting this relocation," said Parents Building Committee spokesperson, Rory Scott.

"The parents and children are incredibly dismayed and disappointed with the Department's out of the blue suggestion to relocate.

"However we are energised by our community's strong support to get this decision overturned and for the permanent site to be located on the Mill Road or in its locality in East Meath."

The Parent’s Building Committee has called on Minister Foley to reverse the Department’s decision, expand the current temporary site and procure a permanent site for the school in East Meath.

The Department of Education has said the existing site is not suitable to accommodate the school's growing number of pupils.

A spokesperson said the proposed move would facilitate Drogheda ETSS ultimately growing to a 1,000-pupil school upon the delivery of a building on a permanent site.

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