A Castlebar primary school has appealed to the Department of Education to purchase a site in the town as a matter of urgency so that a purpose built school can be constructed for them.
It has also appealed for a temporary solution for next year to put an end to what it says is an intolerable accommodation crisis.
RTÉ News visited the school on Friday and saw broken glass, cigarette butts, discarded beer bottles, and human excrement in the alleyway.The classrooms in the former hat factory are used by the school's Junior and Senior Infant classes. They are covered by a large industrial metal shutter that needs to be lifted to give access to the rooms. It takes the children and their teachers and SNAs 10 minutes to walk from the school yard at Marsh house to their classrooms.
First, second, third and fourth class children learn in three classrooms at Marsh House. In one classroom the plaster is coming off the wall due to a leaky gutter that has now been repaired and a dehumidifier is being used to reduce humidity. Standing in a classroom in Marsh House she pointed to the damp wall and an electrical cable running across the room to the dehumidifier beside the wall. She explained that the only plugs are at the ‘teaching’ side of the room.
"Each time the department says that they are conducting viability studies around the town on sites. But there is no need for that to happen. We’ve told them about this site" Sarah says of the school’s interaction with the Department.The Department of Education told RTÉ News that"a capital project to provide a new permanent eight classroom school building for Castlebar ETNS is included in the department’s school building programme pipeline.
The school was Mayo’s first multi-denominational school and opened in the face of opposition from some locally.
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