Letter: Relocation is the best possible option for Cragg Vale school

We are very disappointed with the ill informed letter from Karl Boggis in your December 9 edition, in which he expressed concern about the proposed relocation of Cragg Vale J&I School to Calder High's site.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Dec 2016, 10:00 BST
Cragg Vale School.Cragg Vale School.
Cragg Vale School.

As a local councillor, Mr Boggis will have no doubt been aware that this issue has been going on for well over a year. However, rather than support us through what has been a very difficult time, he has chosen to make an 11th hour objection to our attempt to stay together as a school community.

We are under no illusions that our “charmingly small” school will remain the same if the merger is to go ahead. However, we are optimists and believe in the school’s brilliant staff and governorship. We have tried our utmost to persuade the council to keep our school open, but now accept that this is the best possible option for our children.

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The alternative is that our pupils would be dispersed around other local schools, beyond our control. All parents deserve a say in their children’s futures, including us. Besides, according to the local authority, school places actually need to increase in this area over the next few years, so impact on other local schools should be minimal.

There have been many opportunities for local people to come to meetings/complete feedback forms, which Mr Boggis will have been involved in, as a local parent.

He has written this as a piece about protecting our local schools but in the process is attacking two of our local schools.

Shouldn’t he, and all local residents, be pleased that, should the merger go ahead, our local high school will have £2,000,000 to spend on improving and strengthening the facilities there?

Friends of Cragg Vale School (the school PTFA)