News / School closures would save more than expected
ALMOST £400,000 more can be saved from closing ten Shetland schools than previously thought, it has emerged from detailed analysis by education officials.
Last month Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee was told that proposals to close five secondary departments and five primary schools would save the authority £3.23 million over three years.
Councillors refused to debate the proposals until they had been furnished with more detailed figures about the extra cost of transporting more pupils longer distances and accommodating them in their new schools.
On Tuesday children’s services executive director Helen Budge published the new figures ahead of a special committee meeting to be held on Friday morning.
The latest report shows the council could save almost £3.6 million by closing junior high schools in Aith, Skerries, Baltasound, Sandwick and Whalsay, along with single teacher primaries at Olnafirth, Burravoe, North Roe, Urafirth and Sandness.
The figure exceeds a demand for £3.25 million savings from a “refreshed” Blueprint for Education, the long running review of the islands’ school estate.
The latest attempt to cut the council’s £36 million education budget represents the sixth attempt to close schools in the past 11 years.
The urgency to save money has grown as cash drains out of the council’s oil-funded reserves threatening bankruptcy in five years unless spending is cut by 25 per cent over the authority as a whole.
Meanwhile the cost of education increases with falling school rolls leaving more schools undersubscribed, even though the primary intake is expected to grow by more than five per cent over the next two years.
In the past community resistance has impeded councillors from taking tough decisions on school closures, though that changed last year when they agreed to shut the 100 pupil secondary department in Scalloway and the 11 pupil primary in Uyeasound.
Now the council has called for a planned approach to reduce the school estate to what it can afford in a bid to avoid unplanned cutbacks in years ahead.
The latest report shows that Shetland has one of the highest teacher pupil ratios in Scotland, at 9.2 pupils per teacher compared to 11 in Orkney and the Scottish average of 13.4.
It also has by far the highest cost per secondary pupil of £12,385, compared to £9,033 in Orkney, £9,869 in the western isles and the Scottish average of £6,809. Primary pupil costs are slightly cheaper in Shetland than the other two Scottish island authority areas.
The closures, some of which are dependant on a new secondary school being built in Lerwick by 2016, would see 54 full time equivalent secondary teachers lose their jobs, 41 of whom could be accommodated elsewhere while the others would be expected to take early retirement, the report says.
All five affected primary teachers should be accommodated elsewhere in the isles.
A total of 44 full time equivalent support staff would lose their posts, of which only three would be left without work, however as each full time equivalent is made up of several people doing a part time job there would be more people affected by the changes.
The report points out that the total transport bill for school pupils is £2.3 million, just six per cent of the overall budget.
Running education headquarters at Hayfield House accounts for less than two per cent of the budget.
Staff have identified that the changes would mean a handful of pupils would have to spend longer than the accepted maximum of 65 minutes getting to and from school on a bus, with eight pupils in Wester Skeld facing an 80 minute journey each way to Lerwick.
Pupils on the isle of Unst would need 75 minutes to reach the Mid Yell junior high school, which is only being kept open because it is a brand new building.
The longest journey would be for the two secondary pupils on Skerries who would need more than two hours to get to Lerwick by ferry and either a taxi or a bus, but this would be once a week as they would stay in hostel accommodation from Monday to Friday.
The report has even factored in the increased cost of gritting roads where new school bus runs would be needed, which would come to a maximum of £56,233.
On Tuesday Budge said the initial figures presented to last month’s meeting were “very cautious” indications of the level of savings that could be achieved, and she was not surprised that detailed research had shown even more money could be saved.
“I really appreciate all the extra work that staff in my department and elsewhere in the council have done over the last two weeks to draw all this information together, because it includes a huge amount of new detail,” she said.
“We need to ensure that we have a sustainable model of providing quality education that we can support as we move forward over the next five years,” Budge said.
The council’s report can be read here.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
