'Third-round' programme of school building?

I've been thinking a bit more about the upcoming Full Council meeting on Thursday 23rd August - I mentioned it at the end of an earlier post here ...

... there is almost certainly going to be a full announcement on a programme to close numerous schools in the city. As most will know, previous Labour Administrations have closed schools in Edinburgh. I'm thus not going to automatically oppose the 'principle' of rationalising the school estate when there is substantial, and long-term, over-capacity in the system.

But any such closures HAVE to be undertaken for good educational reasons and never to save money ... any forthcoming school closure programme, if it's cast as a cost-saving exercise, will simply be unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. The Council may be facing financial pressures - I've debated before the 'genuine' severity of the current situation - but it never has, and never should, close schools to save money.

It is all indeed an irony, that despite Edinburgh's rising general population, we do have a falling school-age population and we previously did close schools against that background - for sound educational reasons - and we supplemented the closure programme with a new school-building programme ... giving opportunities for not only amalgamation of existing schools, but movement into brand new, much-improved schools.

There is a big difference today. There is no 'third-round' programme of school building ... the 'second-round', which is currently underway, was signed and delivered as part of the previous overall programme of rationalising the school estate.

The previous Administration did have a 'third-round' in the planning stages - I asked about it's progress at the June Council meeting; here's the question, and response I received:


Question
By Councillor Burns to be answered by the Executive Member for Education, Children and Families at a meeting of the Council on 28 June 2007.

To ask the Executive Member for Education, Children and Families whether the initial contact (of March 2007) with the Scottish Executive, over a potential third-round of school building programme, has been formally followed up since the local government elections on 3 May and to provide complete details of any response received?

Answer
The Director has raised this matter with The Scottish Executive and has requested a meeting. I have separately written to Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, requesting a meeting to pursue this matter.


I further asked specifically about a timetable for the five schools we had in mind for the 'third-round'. Again, here's the question, and response I received:


Question
By Councillor Burns to be answered by the Executive Member for Education, Children and Families at a meeting of the Council on 28 June 2007.

To ask the Executive Member for Education, Children and Families to make clear what the timetable now is for new/refurbished buildings at the schools below:
1. Portobello High School
2. St. John’s Primary School
3. Boroughmuir High School
4. James Gillespie’s High
5. St. Crispin’s Special School

Answer
Progress on these new/refurbished schools is dependent on funding from the Scottish Executive. As previously stated, we are actively pursuing the matter with the Scottish Executive.


I also referred to these five specific schools in an earlier post - which lists all the other new or refurbished schools delivered in the 'first-round' and being delivered in the already signed 'second-round' of school building programmes.

I'll thus remain sceptical about any upcoming programme of closures - for me, it has to be cast within a wider programme of developments. I'm not at all clear that will be the case ... and each, individual school proposal will have to be looked at very, very carefully against that overall background.