St Patricks Grammar School Governors May Consider A Judicial Review Against Their Own Trustees By 13th October.
Many parents whose children are in Downpatrick post-primary secondary and the grammar Catholic Controlled Maintained Schools (CCMS) area are concerned.
They fear the possible future of their children’s Catholic education is being compromised and most would like clarity on a difficult situation that has evolved.
The debate of a merger into a ‘super-school’, with up to 1600 pupils of the three Downpatrick schools and St Columba’s High School in Portaferry under the jurisdiction of the CCMS, has rumbled on for a few years. A co-education model has been proposed.
It is now reaching a tipping point where legal action may be the only resolution left for the campaigners seeking to maintain Catholic education in the broader Lecale area opposing a co-education model.
The governors of St Patrick’s Grammar School in Downpatrick may seek a judicial review against their own trustees, the De La Salle Congregation, by the 13th October, a critical cut off point.
The present crisis situation has emerged following a divergence of opinion between the Board of Governors at St Patrick’s Grammar School and their trustees.
This legal option by the Board of Governors to challenge the trustees is probably the first time in Ireland that proceedings such as this will have been invoked by a school board against their trustees, in this case, the De Le Salle Congregation.
The decision by the Board of Governors must, Down News understands, be taken by the 13th October when the Governors may or may not proceed with the legal action.
The controversial merger of the three schools in Downpatrick – St Patrick’s Grammar School, St Mary’s High School and the de La Salle Secondary School – has been simmering for a number of years and may now soon come to the boil in a court confrontation.
The plan was to create a super-grammar school, with a re-branding of the educational institution, but if this merger does go ahead it may initially operate from across the three educational centres existing in Downpatrick.
It was envisaged that the location of the new super-school would be on the present St Patrick’s Grammar School site.
If legal proceedings do go ahead, it is unclear whether they will be held face-to-face in a court room scenario, or whether it will be done via a video link.
Down News asked the CCMS to comment on the implications of a possible legal confrontation coming to a head, but a spokesperson said that they were not in a position to comment at this moment.
Nor could the CCMS comment on if and when a new post-primary school model in Downpatrick is likely to emerge in the future and become fully operational.
The new super-school was intended to be built by 2021. The Education Authority has recently completed a local consultation on this difficult issue.
The St Patrick’s Grammar School Parents and Friends Association are also fully backing the St Patrick’s Grammar School Board of Governors in their campaign not to move to the proposed co-education model.
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