Skerries/Olnafirth closure plans spelled out
EDUCATION officials in Shetland are recommending the closure of Scotland’s smallest secondary and one of its mainland primary schools next year to save money as it struggles to find £3 million in savings.
For the sixth time in the past 12 years the 70 strong community on the isle of Skerries is battling against the council’s repeated attempts to close their secondary department, where two children are currently being educated.
Olnafirth primary school in Voe, where eight pupils currently attend, is also facing the axe next summer having had a stay of execution while the Scottish government’s Commission on Rural Education was meeting.
The recommendations follow consultation with staff, parents and the community during the summer and will be debated by councillors on 10 October.
Education and families committee chairwoman Vaila Wishart acknowledged the consultation period had been tough for the communities involved.
“It has been a particularly difficult time for the communities involved, but we are now in a position where a decision can be made on this and we can put an end to the uncertainties,” she said.
Sixty per cent of the 38 people who wrote in about the Skerries school closure opposed the move, citing previously expressed fears that it would lead to the closure of the local salmon farm and undermine the community.
They also say it will end up costing the council more than the estimated £75,000 they will save from the closure, with young families likely to leave the island and its older residents without locally provided care.
The council has promised to give the island community and economic support, and insists the children will receive a better education at Lerwick’s Anderson High School.
At Olnafirth 50 per cent of the 22 people who wrote in to the consultation opposed the closure, which would see primary children being bussed to Brae at an extra cost of £3,800, a concession made after parents complained their children would have to share a bus with secondary pupils.
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Officials revised their figures after people suggested they had got them wrong, and found they would save more than £97,000 by closing the school, £6,000 more than they had initially thought.
In response to suggestions that children should be able to attend neighbouring primaries in Mossbank or Lunnasting, the council said Brae was the most popular choice.
The children’s service department says it has already managed to cut its spending by £4.2 million to meet the council’s massive savings targets, and that it has no other way of cutting spending further expect by closing schools.
Consultations are also to take place into closing the secondary schools at Aith and Sandwick, reducing three secondary schools on the islands of Unst, Yell and Whalsay to three years instead of four, and closing primary schools in Sandness, Urafirth, North Roe and Burravoe.
The Skerries consultation report and executive summery can be found here.
The Olnafirth consultation report and executive summery can be found here.
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