Blueprint for Education Update - Closures Again - Aith

[paulb]

A 1000 westsiders say no. better listern gary.

[Shoogler]

^^

That is what amounts to threatening behaviour Paul - Mods over to you

 

You're not on

[paulb]

Threatening i really don't think so. Think you will find out that a person that depends on voters to elect them. it is not wise to annoy them.

[trowie246]

Gary Robinson is a fool, he should have voted the way the vast majority of his own constituents wanted him to vote, the consultation would still have gone ahead. His career as a Wastside councillor is over, no one will trust him ever again. Saying he has not voted for school closures but only for consultation does not make it better, does he think people are stupid? He has voted for formal consultation on the closure of two schools in his own constituency, he's effectively agreed that closures are a possibility when he should have supported the wishes of his constituents to keep their schools open in their own communities! For them, closure is NOT an option.

 

Never mind, he can always stand for councillor in the area he lives (Lerwick) and represent the views of the majority of the people livng there, at the next elections......er, wait a minute.....looks like he's doing that already!

[Infiltrator]

Think you will find out that a person that depends on voters to elect them. it is not wise to annoy them.

 

Well lets just hope Gary (& others) has the balls to do what's right for Shetlands future rather than trying to save his own seat on the council. The previous council was littered with folk who just deferred difficult decisions.

[paulb]

Sounds like a tory view.

[trowie246]

Well lets just hope Gary (& others) has the balls to do what's right for Shetlands future rather than trying to save his own seat on the council. The previous council was littered with folk who just deferred difficult decisions.

 

And that's the biggest pile of c**p too.

 

The councillors DID make decisions last time around and that culminated in the decision to shut Scalloway and Skerries secondary depts and Burravoe and Uyeasound Primaries, utimately Scalloway and Uyeasound closed.

[crofter]

^^

That is what amounts to threatening behaviour Paul - Mods over to you

 

You're not on

 

How is it threatening? It is pretty clear to me that paulb is referring to this:

 

Before the meeting, SIC political leader Gary Robinson received a petition gathered by Aith parents, who had collected over 1,000 signatures in only 48 hours.

 

I agree with trowie246 - he is a fool. Not for his actions now, but for writing his ridiculous manifesto promises in the first place.

[MuckleJoannie]

Well lets just hope Gary (& others) has the balls to do what's right for Shetlands future rather than trying to save his own seat on the council. The previous council was littered with folk who just deferred difficult decisions.

 

And that's the biggest pile of c**p too.

 

The councillors DID make decisions last time around and that culminated in the decision to shut Scalloway and Skerries secondary depts and Burravoe and Uyeasound Primaries, utimately Scalloway and Uyeasound closed.

 

Only at the towards the end of their term in office when the financial problems became to obvious to ignore.

[trowie246]

 

Only at the towards the end of their term in office when the financial problems became to obvious to ignore.

 

In my view closing schools is not the answer and I don't believe it's all about making financial savings. I think it has been the intentions of Schools Service for a long time now to drastically reduce the size of the school estate. If it was all about money they would have spent more time considering other options.

[Shoogler]

Of course its about money Trowie. When you say 'other options', do you mean other than the education budget or other ways of 'sharing' out the education budget? If the SIC is spending 30% more than it gets in central government funding and the education budget is the biggest part of that how can you ignore it?

[hairyian]

 

Only at the towards the end of their term in office when the financial problems became to obvious to ignore.

 

In my view closing schools is not the answer and I don't believe it's all about making financial savings. I think it has been the intentions of Schools Service for a long time now to drastically reduce the size of the school estate. If it was all about money they would have spent more time considering other options.

 

Is this what they call 'out of the box thinking' ?

 

Time and again we see Council departments being criticised for having too many staff, too many buildings, too big a budget and pretty much only out to build their empire. Here I see Education being criticised for spending too much time trying to shrink their empire and save money ?

 

In any case, Councilors have instructed the education department to make savings, large savings. The sort that can not be done simply by getting a discount by bulk buying pencils.

[humptygrumpty]

Of course its about money Trowie. When you say 'other options', do you mean other than the education budget or other ways of 'sharing' out the education budget? If the SIC is spending 30% more than it gets in central government funding and the education budget is the biggest part of that how can you ignore it?

 

 

Well why then isnt the council making cuts to the highest earning "Officials" Or "Officers" (as they like to be called) ?? Why isnt the legion of yellow vans / trucks being reduced ?? Why provide vehicles home to staff when most of us have to run a vehicle to work ? HUGE , MASSIVE savings COULD be made within the council WITHOUT

the need to close schools. How does Orkney manage with almost the same population and half the staff ??

 

And , as mentioned elsewhere , why hasnt tingwall , mossbank and cunningsburgh been considered for these proposals ????

 

Robert Henderson said it was unacceptable for the Lerwick bairns to be schooled outwith Lerwick ? Oh Really ? Now why is that then ? Would love to know the answer to that one , and how he arrives at such a patronising claim !

 

Its high time that these 20 or so clowns at the town hall follow what the electorate wish , after all it was us who put them there , to do a job , not sit smugly with their snouts in the trough with the "we're all right Jack " notion.

[trowie246]

What I'm saying is that I think that the financial situation is 'convenient' for the schools service hidden agenda of shrinking the school estate. They won't reach the savings that they are saying they will achieve by closures, they haven't been properly worked out and people who have pointed out mistakes in the costings are told it is 'typos'. It's very difficult to pick apart the creative accounting that has been going on by Helen Budget in Haywire house for years now but little by little people are digging into it and discovering so called savings are being passed onto other SIC depts and not just school transport, we hear that the same has happened with school IT costs. These are not true savings in real terms.

 

The school service budget costs £35 million.

£5 million of that is recharges - costs charged from other depts within the SIC

Another £5 million is spent on Additional Support Needs, there will be some cuts here but I imagine it will be kept to a minimum.

As quoted on radio Shetland last night 3.3% of the budget spent on central staff, so I think that's just over £1,000000.

 

I think there has to be a much closer look at what these 'recharges' are and why it's so expensive. Also, central staff is far too expensive, Orkney has cut it's Quality Improvement staff to 1.8, Shetland has 3 officers and 2 managers, one of which is dedicated to the Blueprint.

[crofter]

Robert Henderson said it was unacceptable for the Lerwick bairns to be schooled outwith Lerwick ? Oh Really ? Now why is that then ? Would love to know the answer to that one , and how he arrives at such a patronising claim !

 

A minor point, but it was Robert Henderson who suggested that pupils from the town might be moved to other schools, possibly saving the cost of a new AHS. It was Peter Campbell who said this would be unacceptable.

 

Its high time that these 20 or so clowns at the town hall follow what the electorate wish , after all it was us who put them there , to do a job , not sit smugly with their snouts in the trough with the "we're all right Jack " notion.

 

They could take some advice from Honest Abe:

 

“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.â€