Dear Friends of Clontifleece I have just been informed that the Minister is to sign off on the closure of Clontifleece Primary School in the next day or so. It appears our campaign to retain the school has been in vain. My understanding is that it is planned that the school will close in August 2014, twelve months from now. We await confirmation of this. As it is, the school will open as normal in September and Mrs. Duffy will be sending out letters confirming this. Although it was always going to be difficult fight there was nothing inevitable about this decision. I believe that we showed that the school had a vision, that we could be viable and that we had the numbers to prove it. However, from day one the CCMS and the Church were determined to shut us down. We dodged their bullet 18 years ago and it seems they weren’t going to miss a second time. As much as we put our hopes in the Minister intervening on our behalf it was always going to be a difficult call for him to make without some ground being given by the CCMS. And we couldn’t even get a meeting with them. I understand that there will be a strong sense of anger and disappointment over this decision. And there will be tough decisions to be made by parents and staff alike in the coming weeks and months. But there should also be a sense of pride in the passion that this little school generated in people. And the sense of community that it instilled in all of us. I often wondered how different things might have been if we could have harnessed this passion and community spirit many years earlier. I would like to thank and commend everyone who has supported our campaign over these last 6 months. In particular I would like to thank the Friends of Clontifleece Committee members who put in many hours of hard work at meetings, political road trips, petitioning, press-releasing, recruiting and in preparing our strategic plan. Their enthusiasm and drive convinced me that anything was possible. But unfortunately, much like the Narrow Water project, it was just a bridge too far. The school will be 175 years old next year. Quite an achievement. Hopefully we can still celebrate that. Thanks to all. Kevin Fitzpatrick Friends of Clontifleece Committee
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 18:15:43 +0000
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