LAST UPDATE | 6 Mar

THE PARENTS OF children in a Co Kildare primary school which was forced to close earlier this week due to “urgent” safety concerns have said that a request to inspect the building before it re-opens on Monday has been “ignored”.

On Wednesday, St. Patrick’s Primary School in Celbridge announced it would close due to recent fire safety and building compliance concerns.

A message from the Board of Management to parents said the decision had been taken in the “interests of the safety, health and welfare of our pupils and staff”.

It cited “independent assessments” which “identified a number of fire safety and building compliance matters which require urgent attention”.

The Board of Management said the decision had been taken “proactively” and that “acting at this stage allows required works to proceed in a controlled and structured manner, rather than responding reactively at a later point”.

It was then announced yesterday that the school will reopen on Monday.

More than 300 parents attended a meeting last night where the chair of the Board of Management said the building was deemed safe by the Fire Officer from Kildare County Council and the Department of Education. 

Remediation works are currently underway at the school, and the works are set to continue until August.

The Board also committed to providing weekly progress updates from the project manager and to improving communication with parents as works continue.

However, parents have said that they still “need some assurances that the school is safe for our children to attend on Monday”.

A letter sent this morning to the Board on behalf of parents noted that the “school was closed on safety grounds and within 36 hours has since been declared safe”.

The letter states that “no documented evidence” of this has been presented to parents and that parents “are being asked to take a lot on good faith”.

The letter also said that “the relationship between the parents and the school management and Board have been fractured” and that there is a “need to rebuild trust”.

The meeting held on Thursday night heard a suggestion that a parent rep from each class be allowed to inspect classrooms and support rooms prior to the school reopening on Monday.

However, one parent at the school told The Journal that this request has been “ignored”.

The parent said they “implored” the school to “work with us on this” as “we want to move forward and rebuild the trust that has been fractured”.

In the letter to the school and Board, endorsed by parents, it was also remarked that there is “black mould throughout the school” and that this was “verbally confirmed by the principal at the meeting”.

The letter asked for the plan for eradicating this mould to be shared with parents “as a matter of urgency”, but this also has not been granted as yet, according to the parents.

A message to parents from the Board of Management which was sent today noted that works will continue over the weekend and that “work on removing mould has begun and all identified areas will be treated before the pupils return on Monday”.

Parents have also requested a copy of the recent fire certificate issued to the school, which deemed the building to be safe.

The school made an Emergency Works Application to the Department of Education last year and a consultant’s report contained within it noted “serious breaches of fire safety regulations” and stated that “deep remedial and retrofit works are required”.

Such fire safety breaches included “almost universal failure of fire-doors and catastrophic failure of the ground floor plate”.

Parents have requested a copy of the certificate which “confirmed that all fire protection systems and doors are now fully functioning”.

“I believe the above requests can be easily fulfilled,” the parent told The Journal.

“Fulfilment will ease parents’ concerns and will also begin to rebuild trust in our school community.”

A message sent to parents today from the Board of Management stated that “all requests for confirmation of the safety of the building should be forwarded to the Department of Education building section”.

A spokesperson from the Department of Education and Youth said the Department has “reassured the school that the school building is safe to use and that the school should re-open as normal on Monday morning”.

“The Department notes and welcomes the decision of the Board of Management yesterday evening to reopen the school as normal on Monday morning,” added the spokesperson.