School plans under fire

THE people of Dover will be short-changed by plans to reorganise secondary education there, a councillor said.
    Members of the county's schools sub-committee on Wednesday last week agreed to consult the public about the plans, including the possibility of the Boys' Grammar School moving to the former Castlemount School site and the consolidation of Astor School on the Boys' Grammar School site, and any issues that might emerge for all secondary schools, including St Edmund's RC.
    Cllr Trudy Dean (Lib Dem) said the proposals meant the two grammar schools would dictate to all other schools in the area what the grounds for consultation would be.
    She said: "The two grammar' schools are unable to recruit pupils and are, therefore, less successful, but they will be dictating the terms of reorganisation to other more successful schools.
    "It is short-changing the people of Dover."
    She called for a wide-ranging review of the Secondary education needs of the area to sec if there was a demand for an extension of comprehensive education there.
    She went on: "We are proposing to give the grammar schools priority, and only to give whatever money is left after their needs are met to the remaining 75 per cent of school children."
    Spokesman Christopher Storr expressed dissatisfaction on behalf of St Edmund's School which, he said, had been in continuous negotiation with the authority since March 1988 about buying the Castlemount School site.
    He said the school should be allowed to buy the site as a first priority. The proposal before the sub-committee was not, he said, an overall plan for Dover and he hoped the members would regard it as a matter of honour and integrity to refer the present proposals back to officers for a full examination of all the issues.
    His protest was dismissed as totally unfair by Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con) who said that if the Castlemount site were sold then any other options for Dover would cost the authority more than it would receive.
    Dover's Paul Verrill (Lab) said the proposal did not take into account the overall educational needs of the children of Dover. The special problems of the two grammar schools supported non-selective education because parents were not sending their children to the grammar schools.
    Labour's Cllr Sarah Palmer's call for a more complete review of all secondary education in Dover and a site meeting was defeated.