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Blueprint for Education Update - Closures Again - Aith


The Cheesemaker
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I am a member of the Aith Parent Council and have just found out from the Chair that he has today received a letter from the Education Department stating that as a result of their budget cutting plans, junior high secondary depts will be earmarked for closure - with Aith School being phase 1 - by 2014. The Councillors will meet next week to discuss this.

 

This is truly shocking news to all those involved with the school, which continues too be academically excellent.

 

All parents should receive a copy of the information that we received by tomorrow and will be invited to a meeting on monday night in Aith if they want to make their views known, to the local councillors which will be invited.

 

Clearly emptying out half the school in Aith, can only be a stepping stone to closing other smaller schools on the westside to turn Aith into a huub primary

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all very good were are they ment to go. typical lerwick centric view. close the anderson ship the kids to the other schools. save 50 million in building costs.

 

but of course this wont happen we all must be lerwick based.

 

just a question how many extra snow day will this result in. with a reduced gritting service.

 

hey what we could do is sack the admin staff and managers and out source there jobs. this will result in a massive saving. after all with such a reduced service do we need such a large back office.

 

i wonder what would happen if the schools became independent of the council. this in itself could save a lot of money.

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^^

The 'back office' will be cut as well and already is being. The only way to stop spending our reserves so quickly is to actually have less people working for the SIC - across the board.

I too hope that councillors stick to the plan and close schools.I know they have to follow the procedures of consultation, but this time I hope they are honest and show the real costings associated with each closure, inclusive of the SIC overhead element and also proper workings on the transport/accommodation costs of the plan.

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Guest CyprusPluto

hey what we could do is sack the admin staff and managers and out source there jobs.

 

Why? What have they done wrong? They're as much victims of this economic downturn as anybody and everyone seems to assume they applied for and do their thankless jobs simply to waste taxpayers money - wrong! They do them, because the work exists. The work exists because officialdom deems it necessary - they didn't create the work.

 

Typical uninformed view of management and administration :x

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Guest CyprusPluto

i wonder what would happen if the schools became independent of the council. this in itself could save a lot of money.

 

An excellent idea. I look forward to seeing your propsals.

 

:)

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I have already suggested, on the SIC cost-cutting thread, that there would be some really big savings to be made if SIC and Orkney councils combined many of their administrative functions with some being centralised here and some being centralised in Kirkwall. There is inevitably similar or the same functions being carried out by staff in the 2 councils and bulk purchasing discounts could also be achieved if many purchases were made by a centralised purchasing department.

 

The savings made would easily dwarf any potential savings in the education budget by closing some of the smaller schools and thus potentially decimating communities.

 

The outgoing SIC chief exec, on his way back to Kirkwall shortly, is in an ideal position to try and push such changes through for the benefit of both island groups. Common sense, really.

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Again I believe the inevitable backlash to these proposals will come from the timescale involved.

 

I firmly believe that a long term plan is what should have, and can still be (albeit not *so* long) the way forward.

 

Sure, smaller more remote schools will close, this has happened down the ages and to a further degree elsewhere, but if a proper plan were in place where people knew 5-10 years ahead that (for example) all when the new AHS was finished, all Aith secondary would be moved there and all the smaller westside primaries would close and move to a refurbished for the purpose Aith, people would understand and could plan their futures accordingly.

 

Of course, that this hasn't happened lies at the feet of people now long gone, and while many seem to like the "blame game" it really is a waste of time, as things need brought into line now.

 

Broadly, these latest proposals look reasonable if not for the one glaring elephant in the room - there is no way in hell there will be a new AHS up and ready by 2016! I wish it were so, but I just cant see it.

 

I know many will have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of bussing pupils out of town and making full use of the likes of Aith and Sandwick, but it really does make sense. It is absolutely no different to bussing Aith pupils to Lerwick, indeed it makes so much more sense at this particular time until outside funding for a new AHS can be found and a long term plan put in place.

 

Whatever happens, I really do hope this time the decisions can be made logically, and not politically, although things do not bode well given the apparent reluctance to go with a few simple care cuts earlier this month.

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The savings made would easily dwarf any potential savings in the education budget by closing some of the smaller schools and thus potentially decimating communities.

 

 

If it was that 'easily' why has it not been done?

Sadly it is NOT.

This and previous Directors (managers) of Education have been tasked every year with making savings. Each has pointed out that by a country mile the largest cost element is that of of teaching staff wages.

Particularly in smaller schools it is not possible to cut staff.

A teacher with 3 pupils costs the same as one with 25.

When we start talking of having to save Millions, it has to be the staff that gets the chop, hence school closures.

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The savings made would easily dwarf any potential savings in the education budget by closing some of the smaller schools and thus potentially decimating communities.

 

 

If it was that 'easily' why has it not been done?

Sadly it is NOT.

Total inefficiency, that is why.

Outside in the real world, centralisation is common place in aministrative functions is very commonplace. SIC and Orkney councils are perfectly placed to go down that route if they had some common sense.

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I have already suggested, on the SIC cost-cutting thread, that there would be some really big savings to be made if SIC and Orkney councils combined

 

Yes, and you were largely ignored there as well.

 

There appears to be little or no support (at this time) for this particular idea.

 

Want to know why?

 

Just go and compare the amounts of money spent in different areas by both councils then, when you have done that, try and decide just where any amalgamation could take place and just who would have to go in order to make your plan work.

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^^

I agree that the likelihood of a new AHS by 2016 is low however i understand a funding bid is in and if successful planning can go into full swing, based on an existing model for a same scale school on mainland Scotland - rather than the glass edifice planned previously. So if not 2016 then maybe 2017, which may involve delaying some moves until then. These processes have a habit of slipping a bit in most cases.

The fact is, if the new AHS commitment is clear and underway, then the plan makes sense.

Not sure what your reference is to the care cuts not being backed?

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