Border Telegraph | News | Council sabotaged school meeting claim

Wednesday, 7th January, 2009

Published: Tuesday, 1st November, 2005 10:39

Council sabotaged school meeting claim

By Border Telegraph Newsroom

A BITTER war of words has erupted over the consultation procedure that could close Channelkirk Primary School.

Parents claim a meeting between pupils and councillors has been sabotaged by Scottish Borders Council education officials.

While SBC’s education portfolio holder, Val Robson, has accused parents of using pupils to help their campaign.

Parents are worried that their children are not being given enough say in the consultation.

And they dismissed a statutory exercise to involve them last week as: “nothing more than a former teacher asking loaded questions to ascertain their views.”

Independent of the consultation procedure, pupils invited all 34 Scottish Borders councillors to a meeting with them, scheduled for this Thursday.

But the meeting has been scrapped after the council’s education department told councillors that the school’s head teacher was against the meeting.

Although some councillors replied to the children stating their intention to come, others said they would not attend, and others did not reply.

Councillor Robson replied, saying: “I find it extremely disturbing that the children are being put into such a position for reasons which are possibly not best motivated.”

Parents are now accusing the education department of putting pressure on local members, forcing the meeting to be cancelled.

One of the parents, Andy Ferguson, said: “The pupils would have liked the opportunity to meet with councillors, on their terms, to share their thoughts and views on the village in which they live and the school they attend.

“However, this ridiculous reaction from the council officials has created a heightened atmosphere which we do not want our children to be part of.

“Sadly, we have had to let those councillors know that the event will not now take place.

“They don’t seem to realise that this event was organised solely by parents. It had nothing to do with the school board or PTA. I fail to see what they think they can gain by attacking parents.”

But SBC’s education department has rejected the parents’ claims, saying no pressure was put on councillors to turn down the invitation.

A council education spokesperson said: “We told the councillors that the head teacher has expressed her disapproval of the event. She thought it was unfair on the children.

“We only told the councillors in private that the head teacher was not happy, and we left it at that.

“I don’t think any of the councillors feel pressurised about it. We just gave them information to make up their own minds.”

Channelkirk head teacher, Kay Livingston, refused to comment on the situation.

But Green List MSP for South of Scotland, Chris Ballance, has added fuel to the fire by accusing council officials of sending councillors inaccurate information.

Speaking after a meeting between rural school parents and Education Minister, Peter Peacock, last week, Mr Ballance said: “It would appear that far from expressing strong opposition, the school’s head teacher wasn’t even consulted by the council official before the e-mail was sent.”

A separate visit to the school was also postponed by the council’s education department.

Councillors were scheduled to visit the school last week as part of the consultation process, but an education spokesperson said there was a more pressing need to visit Earlston High School before a November 10 debate on plans for their new school.

The spokesperson also said concerns had been raised about the effect the consultation procedure was having on the Channelkirk pupils.

A separate visit to Channelkirk will be arranged in the future, for a time when the children will not be in school.

The spokesperson said: “We had a former head teacher meeting with the children and talking to them and getting their views.

“She does that in a totally independent way with no input from us. We don’t know the details because we try to keep it at arm’s length.

“She is visiting the school again this week, and the children’s views are definitely being heard.”

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