School ‘clusters’ in Argyll and Bute were planned to save the council £675,000 – despite public statements that the change would be ‘cost-neutral’, newly-released documents have shown.
And assurances that the actual groupings of schools had not been decided have been called into doubt, after consultants were told there would be 16 clusters or collectives.
There has been overwhelming opposition from parent councils, community councils and a teachers union to the council’s plans to group schools under a collective management team.
And this week responses were issued to several Freedom of Information requests which had been made as far back as November – despite legislation stating that the deadline is 20 working days.
Tracy Mayo, of the Wise4All group, has now made 23 documents public, including some obtained by former councillor Mike Breslin.
“These have simply reinforced my concern about the validity of the consultation process, the future of small schools, and the sustainability of our communities as we know them, and for me personally, the island way of life as we currently know it,” she said.
“Those who should be informing and shaping change continue to have no meaningful part in it. Is this current process a consultation/engagement or a marketing exercise?
“The overwhelming feeling I have is one of exclusion from key decisions impacting my own child’s education and worry for the quality of education for future generations and the likely lasting effects this proposal could have if implemented on our communities.”
The council held a rare press briefing in January in which an education official stated: “The parameters we are working with are cost-neutral to the council’s budget and the education service’s budget.
“But if the proposals are approved by the committee in the late autumn, we go out to consultation on the collectives. Cost neutral is what we are working towards.”
However the documents now released show the intention was to save £675,000, and there are repeated mentions of ‘savings’ as well as ‘cashable benefits’.
Read more: Consultants’ fees for school clusters revealed
Smaller schools in the clusters or collectives are initially termed ‘remote classrooms’, but this is later changed to ‘additional classrooms’.
Fears have previously been expressed that the plans could lead to the number of head teachers in Argyll and Bute reducing from 84 to 14.
This has been denied by the council, who said that under the new plans, heads of school would be non-teaching.
The plans to introduce executive head teacher posts were opposed by 85% of EIS members in Argyll and Bute.
More than 20 documents were released. For ease of reference they have been combined here into a single PDF file: PDF documents
The council was asked to comment on the newly-released documents but has not responded.
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