ActionForBoroughmuir

Fix all our schools NOW ! Wave 3 Parents urge Council

Parents across the Wave 3 Schools, including Boroughmuir and its feeder primary schools, Bruntsfield, Buckstone and South Morningside, have put our heads together and drawing on professional expertise within the group, developed a plan which would allow the Council to build all five schools now.

The Wave 3 schools (Boroughmuir High School, James Gillespie’s High School, Portobello High School, St Crispins Special School and St Johns Primary school) are facing a wait of up to fourteen years wait now that PPP funding is no longer available for school building projects. Parents and staff at these schools are naturally frustrated that children are being educated in crumbling school buildings, already identified by City of Edinburgh Council as not fit for purpose. At Boroughmuir, we have been waiting for a new school for thirty years.

Parents are now urging MPs, MSPs and Edinburgh Council Councillors from all parties to work together to make the refurbishment of Edinburgh’s Wave 3 Schools happen, not over 14 years as currently planned, but NOW.   We believe that given a joined-up approach and the political will, the money can be made available now and pumped into the local economy to sustain jobs and maintain communities, as well as solving the issue of phasing the rebuilding of the schools.

We have written to Cllr Jenny Dawe Convenor of Edinburgh Council and Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education to work together to resolve the unacceptable situation now faced by Edinburgh Schools.

View "A Tale of Five Schools" here and the full press release here.

Council puts Portobello first, other schools on extended timetable

At a meeting of the Wave 3 schools last night Cllr Marilyne Maclaren, Convenor of Children and Families told school heads and chairs of the parent councils that the Department is recommending that Portobello High School be rebuilt first out of the list of five Edinburgh schools shortlisted for the state of their disrepair.

They are also recommending that James Gillespie's High School be fixed second. Boroughmuir High School would be third, St John's Primary School fourth and St Crispin's Special School fifth.Edinburgh councillors will vote on the proposals next week. Cllr Maclaren advised rebuilding/refurbishing all five schools will take a minimum of 14 years.

Council officials are backing the proposal to refurbish the Viewforth site rather than a new building at Fairmilehead.  This is good news but of little benefit if the Council cannot see its way to funding the refurbishment in the next twelve years.

The Action for Boroughmuir group is hugely disappointed by the ranking proposed by the Council and will continue to push the Council to find a solution that will enable all five schools to be built in a much faster timescale

School site sale is far from a done deal says water giant

Edinburgh Evening News, by Gemma Fraser

SCOTTISH Water today insisted that the future of its Fairmilehead site will not be decided for another  three years – despite the city council saying it is in "well advanced" negotiations over buying the site to build a new high school.
 

The council has just finished consulting with parents over plans to modernise Boroughmuir High School, putting forward two proposals – either redeveloping on the current Viewforth site or building a new school on the treatment plant site at Fairmilehead.

The majority of parents seem to favour the redevelopment option as they believe it is the most realistic – and the comments from Scottish Water appear to strengthen their claim.

The utility company will have 25 acres of surplus land when it moves to Glencorse in 2011, but it says it won't be making a decision on the future of the site until then.

A spokesman for Scottish Water said the company has been "in discussion" with the city council over ten acres of its land. But he added: "We are happy to continue to work with the City of Edinburgh Council over its aspirations for a possible new school, however by no means has the future of any surplus land been decided.

Read the full story here.

Consultation Survey

The online survey hosted by the City of Edinburgh Council is here.  They have asked for responses by 7th November (Extended deadline). The Council Survey, hosted by Survey Monkey, asks for sensitive information over an unencrypted connection without any obvious privacy policy and without stating what the information is going to be used for. The webmaster at Boroughmuir High School STRONGLY suggests you consider carefully before using it!

Evening News coverage of Council's Parent Consultation

Published Date: 20 October 2008

By Gemma Fraser, Evening News

THE future of a major school modernisation programme is facing fresh doubts after it emerged more than half the money earmarked by the city council to fund the project is in jeopardy as a result of the credit crunch.
Council bosses have admitted that "a degree of risk" surrounds £17 million of the £33m that it has committed to rebuilding or replacing five crumbling schools in the city.  Read on here 

Public meeting

Ask your Questions, Have your Say !

We're holding a public meeting for parents from Buckstone, South Morningside and Bruntsfield primary schools next Thursday 6th November 2008 at South Morningside Primary School at 7.00pm.  The purpose of the meeting is to give parents as much information as possible regarding the options for Boroughmuir.

Malcolm Fraser will present plans for a possible major refurbishment at the Viewforth site and we have asked the Council to present the plans for the proposed new school at Fairmilehead.  Councillor Aitken, one of our local councillors, will chair the meeting.

Last week you should have received, via pupil post, a copy of the Boroughmuir Options for Replacement questionnaire, and supporting information sent out by Edinburgh Council. This is a vital issue that will impact your children’s education, particularly if they are currently at one of the feeder primary schools, Buckstone, Bruntsfield or South Morningside. Parents are asked to choose between two options : a major refurbishment on the school’s current site at Viewforth, or a new build at Fairmilehead, but with no guaranteed site.

The matter is now critical as, whichever option is chosen, Boroughmuir needs a building fit for purpose in the 21st century, so your views are very important ! Please do respond to the questionnaire.

Update October '08
A lot has happened over the last few months.  The Council have undertaken their feasibility study and the plans drawn up by Malcolm Fraser, parent and leading architect have been incorporated in the plans. The Parent Council held a public meeting in March to present these plans to the Boroughmuir Parent Body. There was comprehensive support for this vision for a substantial make over for the current buildings and site.  Malcolm's plans can be seen here

Funding a new School

The Council is considering two options for Boroughmuir : a brand new school at the Scottish Water site at Fairmilehead, or a major refurbishment at Viewforth with new buildings including a new  classroom suite on the gable end at the north side of the site, a full size sports hall and new dining and kitchen facilities.

The first, a brand new school will cost around £35 - 40 million for the buildings and an estimated £30 million for the site.  The refurbishment option is likely to cost around £30 million. 

Boroughmuir is part of the Wave 3 group of 5 schools currently awaiting funding for new/refurbished premises

But - and this is a big but ! - the Council currently has very little money to fund the Wave 3 schools. Until recently, for capital projects of this nature the Council would find 20% of the money and the Scottish Government would provide the balance.  Under the previous Scottish administration this was done under Public Private Partnership finance arrangements - more commonly known as PPP.  The new Government is working on  plans for the Scottish Futures Trust to replace PPP, but in the meantime have said there is no additional money to help the Council with the Wave 3 Schools.

Feasibility Study goes ahead

A feasibility study is now under way by the Council, to look at the options for refurbishing the building and the possibilities for a new school.  Councillor McLaren & Gillian Tee, Director of Children and Families visited the school on 16th November to look at the current premises in closer detail. 

Jack Hamilton, the Headmaster,  and  Polly Purvis, Malcolm Fraser and Neil Smith from the Parent Council, met with representatives of the Property department on the 19th November, to set the feasibility study process off.  The Council are planning to have this complete by early January 2008.

Alistair Darling comments on School building issue

The November edition of the Morningside & Bruntsfield Gazette features a story about the opportunity for a major refurbishment of the current school, and a letter from Alistair Darling MP which is reproduced below :


Boroughmuir High case for investment is overwhelming

"I am very concerned about the recent threat to Boroughmuir High School’s chances of getting a new or refurbished school.

The new council administration has announced that it can’t deliver the rebuilding programme for five schools across Edinburgh after the new Scottish Executive administration confirmed it would not fund the work.

The Scottish education minister declared that “we don’t have £100 million with Edinburgh’s name on it”.

This is bad news for parents in Edinburgh who were told by the Scottish Executive That it would “match the school building programme brick for brick” I know it will be a blow to the Boroughmuir parents who wrote to me recently following a meeting with the Council.

At that time the authority remained confident that the pressing need to make Boroughmuir fit for purpose would mean it remained a high priority for substantial investment. Last month, in my pre-budget report as Chancellor, I announced increases to the annual Scottish budget to £30 billion by 2011, which is more than double the level that was available to First Minister Donald Dewar in the very first Scottish Executive in 1999.

This is a budget that is there for investment, including refurbishing or rebuilding schools. The Boroughmuir buildings are almost 100 years old and it is one of the oldest schools in Edinburgh.

Children deserve and need to be in a high quality building to support them in achieving their potential -  although it is not just the children who would benefit. Boroughmuir High School is a hive of activity every evening, offering a full community education service to local people.  Activities from arts, history and languages to upholstery and motor cycle maintenance are on offer, amongst other things.

Please get in contact with me if you want tp discuss this or any other issues.”

Rt Hon Alistair Darling is MP for Edinburgh South West

Meeting with Edinburgh Council

Meeting with Convenor and Officials - October 11 2007. We met with Marilyne MacLaren, Convenor Education, Children and Families, and Gillian Tees (Director C&F), Donald McDougan (Director of Finance), and David Fenton (Head of Infrastructure and Development).
A full and frank discussion ensued, during which we made it clear that we were not prepared to be caught between the Council and the Government - we expect them all to sit down and work out a solution,  and for the Council to provide leadership.
We stressed that we are not prepared to accept a lack of a solution, - if for no reason other than our Schools are costing increasingly large amounts of money just to keep functioning.

The outcome is that the Council is commissioning feasibility studies for new/rebuilt/refurbished school options for each of the schools. Each school/parent group should put forward people to work on this. It will be completed in three months (January 2007). The results of these studies will form the basis of a costed bid to the Scottish Governement, and the ball will then be in their court.

Evening News campaign w/c 3rd October

Evening News 3rd October : http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1609&id=1579842007
Evening News 4th October : http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1609&id=1579842007
Evening News 4th October : http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1609&id=1586182007
Evening News 4th October :http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1585642007
Evening News 5th October : http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1609&id=1593372007
The schools' funindg issue was also raised during First Minister's Questions, on 4th October : http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-07/sor1004-02.htm#Col2456