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At the sic meeting last June Jonathon Wills and Betty Fullertson were the only 2 councillors that voted for the more radical plan, option 3, which was close ALL the junior highs in Shetland. Betty only changed her mind when the Burra mafia started breathing down her neck ...

Burra has a mafia? :shock:

... but her personal opinion is that not only should Scalloway secondary dept close but all the junior highs in Shetland.

Without singling out Betty, it's been interesting to watch this epic trundle on and seeing what happens when our elected representatives, locally and nationally, weigh 'personal opinion' against the clearly expressed wishes of those they are meant to be representing.

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@ trowie246: As an aside, it took 10 years three months from the date of that report until the new school was ready accept its first pupils, by which time it had become necessary that it be a four teacher school. Only a very minimal number of those additional pupils were transplants or passers-through. The design of the school had to be (by all appearances, very hurriedly) amended while being built to include an additional classroom and two additional small general purpose rooms, the access to which was extremely inconvenient.

 

The "numerous" bus operators in the area mentioned, amounted to at the time of writing that, probably four, had by the time the school opened declined to just one. So that two of the four bus routes feeding the school were serviced by an operator from Sandwick for several years after the school opened. Resulting in the pupils from those two routes, if for whatever reason the school closed early etc, having to wait until available drivers were contacted, some of whom lived in Cunningsburgh, they then got to Sandwick, and then got from Sandwick to the school with a bus.

 

So much for the forecasting abilities of the Education Committee and the ZCC, even back then. :roll:

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Guest Anonymous
o, how would you ensure a fair system. Or do you want it only to happen in this case, many or those people are salaried, they would be paid the same if they were there or not.

 

the point you are missing is salaried or not why have them spend half the day sitting around doing nothing when they could be working. A bit of efficiency and we could get rid of a few managers and keep all the schools open.

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(Hoopfully sombody il tak da time tae read me posts)......upo da subject o da flea he cood nae maer mak a referee bak in da dae as he cin mak a cooncilor noo'adaes!! :lol:

 

An we didna hear muckl complaints fae da learned dr. wills aboot da cooncil waestin money whin dae wir fundin his peerie tourist boat trips!

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I understand most of what you write but as an incomer its a lot harder to get the full meaning. but write how you want. After all it takes all sorts to make shetlink interesting.

 

I wonder if bressay School was being closed down if a council member would be keen on closing it.

 

The education system needs proper planning (long term). If the Anderson was a new fit for purpose building then there would be loads less complaints. but as always our council could not plan anything well. if the anderson was as good as dr wills is keen on saying it is the parents of the kids at the JHS would be sending them there. does he not have a conflict of interest acting as a governor of the Anderson and supporting the closure of other schools.

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fur da chosen twartre...

 

@paulb totaly agree wi de daer i tink da learned dr. widna chirp sae muckl if da shun wis upo da iddir fit....

 

an whin hit comes ta maetirs lik dis why shood lerook hae da majority cooncil vote? i tink da amount o cooncilors in lerook shood be cut in haaf!

yu wid tink wir lerook wis da size o new york! as dae hae hit spleet up nort an sooth! why do dae need sa mony cooncilors??

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Many thanks for your assorted views on Shetland dialect, but how about taking it onto another thread and leave this one for discussion on the pros and cons of Our councillors attempts at government and provision of education for our children.

 

A couple of things on my mind.

 

I was also a bit mystified by the timing of the motion to modify the decision, note the word modify, apparently this is stipulated in council procedure, that it can't be voted on until after 6 months, 17 Dec to 17 May.

 

The vote will not be on stopping the closure, but delaying it to a point that the new Anderson is up and a fit place to accept the Scalloway pupils. This is not a u turn but a bit of sound thinking.

 

Bit rich for councillor Wills to go on about changing council decisions, after his excellent performance on the relocation of the Anderson. This, if you believe the media, cost millions and has lead the new Anderson to years late, if he had accepted the previous vote on the location of the new Anderson, we would be much nearer having a new school and this would be a mute discussion, maybe Dr Jonathon needs to look at his own performance and it’s impact before pontificating on the actions of other councillors who are following council process and fighting for the best for the children from their wards.

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The decision to postpone the closure of the Scalloway Secondary Department, if taken, will be a wise decision and quite honestly I would far rather have a council who admitted they made a mistake than one who simply said "we voted on it so that is the end of the matter". Of course I would far rather have a council who got it right in the first place but we get a chance to select such a council in next year's elections.

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the point you are missing is salaried or not why have them spend half the day sitting around doing nothing when they could be working. A bit of efficiency and we could get rid of a few managers and keep all the schools open.

 

I would like to see your figures on how the schools could be saved by doing this. I think if you check, many managers throughout councils will be going and services shared.

 

How do you know they spend half of every day doing nothing?

They are doing their job. Are you saying that their jobs should change?

 

But this has nothing to do really with the current string/thread as what you are asking is a change in national democracy. Which, if you have read will take many years and cost billions.

 

Instead of griping at folk do something.

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whilst people are desperatly trying to get off topic il throw in my tupence worth on the school closures, (im new to shetlink by the way)

I didnt go to school here so ive no experience of any of the schools in the isles but the closures are clearly a sensitive issue, for every closure which has been suggested there has always been a campaign to save said school and whilst sometimes it is wrong to close down a school other times it is absolutly the right thing to do you cant justify a secondary school in skerries when islands with bigger populations have to go to the anderson from s1 also 2 primary schools in unst is a bit OTT considering the population and as someone has said before they are moving to schools which are far far smaller than the national average.

youve got to think theres more to school than just pupil to teacher time theres also the big part of learning to interact with others form friendships increase social skills etc etc which is harder if theres only 11 bairns to a school.

as for scalloway it is daft doing it before the new anderson is ready but once (how longs a piece of string) the fit for purpose school is built in lerwick it realy has to be done,

 

shetland has been in a fortunate financial position over the last few decades but be it changes to education or fixed links to the isles the anger which has poured is sometimes a bit, well, selfish. its been recognised that the current situation is not sustainable and you cant just simply keep going till theres no money left you cant please all of the people all of the time!

 

String me up if you must! :wink:

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does lerwick really need 2 primary schools?? leave scalloway secondry department open n combine the 2 lerwick primarys surely dat will save money all da bairns are already in da toon so extra buses widna be needed.
Probably yes given the size of the two schools and yes for the future given that both sites do not offer a lot of space for expansion. Of course a new primary alongside the new AHS might make sense but that is a good while in the future.
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@stromtrow totally agree wi de daer! alwaes saed lerook cood big wan skool fur hitsel, as i saed afoar hits no da gret muckle sprawlin metropolis dat hit liks ta tink hit is...

I wonder, do you ever feel like a person on a soap-box talking to an audience of 1 - yourself? (2 maybe, if you include Groilick)....

 

Point to Note: I don't really read what you write, but I certainly would if you gave consideration to the large audience you certainly have and to refrain from being totally selfish...

You never know, but both of you may have something very useful to say?

A little bit of the Shetland Dialect is really great - if used correctly and spelt accurately...., :)

That's all this time folks.... :roll:

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A little bit of the Shetland Dialect is really great - if used correctly and spelt accurately...., :)

That's all this time folks.... :roll:

 

I didna keyn dat shaetlan hed a proper wye tae spell hit. I ayways towt dat hit wis maestly spoken, an dat fok spelt it foo dey heard it.

 

(But there is a new thread for the dialect aspect of the conversation, maybe your post would be better there)

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