Unfortunate timing for school upgrade
SHETLAND Islands Council on Thursday sanctioned up to £100,000 to construct additional social space at Lerwick’s Anderson High school.
Councillors said the investment was part of an ongoing improvement plan at the existing school.
Investment is needed to maintain the old building, after councillors threw out plans to build a new school on the site in 2009. Plans for a new high school to go up at Lower Staney Hill will not be completed before August 2017.
The decision was criticised by the parent council of the Scalloway school, whose 120 pupils will be transferred to Lerwick unless the government dismisses the SIC’s decision to close it down and save £700,000.
Councillor Jonathan Wills told the services committee that the AHS parent council and the school’s head teacher Valerie Nicolson had insisted that the improvements were part of a long term programme of work.
Councillor Alistair Cooper said that ”as usual” the council had ended up on the back foot, and councillor Cecil Smith added that the timing of the publication of this report had been “unfortunate”.
But education spokesman Bill Manson said the investment was a consequence of not having a new Anderson High at the Knab as of 2012, as initially planned.
“We have to make sure the existing school is fit for purpose. This would have come to you regardless of whether or not we had decided to close the Scalloway junior high school,” he said.
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