The proposed Development Proposal to close both Enniskillen Collegiate School and Portora Royal School and open a new school on a split site, will go before the members of the Western Education and Library Board on May 8 for approval.

If approved, it will be published in local newspapers and a two-month public consultation will begin from May 14. All responses will be sent directly to the Department of Education and it is from these responses, that the Minister, John O’Dowd, will make his decision.

The Western Board has proposed a timeline of September 2015 for the creation of the new school on both the Collegiate and Portora sites.

However their consultation with the Collegiate School on Wednesday evening last, raised many questions from parents, many of them unanswered by Board officials who simply indicated the points were noted.

Four Board officers were present; Rosemary Watterson, acting as facilitator; Sinead McCartan, a development officer, who outlined the development proposal process; Pat Hughes, the Board’s chief finance office, who gave an outline of the finance and resources and Paddy Mackey, a senior education officer, who spoke about the curriculum.

From the moment Rosemary Watterson introduced the speakers, meeting, the questions from the floor began and the officers were unable to give their powerpoint presentations without constant interruptions and questions over points they had made.

One of the issues raised was why this process was being proposed when the Devenish College situation was far from being resolved. It is now almost 10 years since a new school was proposed but Collegiate parents said there was still no sign of a new build with one man indicating it could be another 25 years.

When pushed on questions on Devenish College, Sinead McCartan said they had planning permission in place to cover a culvert and level the ground. Explaining how long it would take for a new school, she indicated that from the consultants stage to walk in, it would normally take around five years.

Paddy Mackey in reply to a question on Devenish College, conceded that if a new school had been built in 2005, it “might have been a white elephant now”.

Rosemary Watterson, when asked if Devenish College was fit for purpose, replied that it was not what they, the Board, would wanted to have happened. In 2004, the Public Private Partnership initiative fell apart and they could then not build that school because it had to be seen in the context of all schools.

One parent wondered if this proposed new school developed from the closure of the Collegiate and Portora, likely to end up like Foyle College, a co-educational voluntary grammar school formed in 1976 from Foyle College and Londonderry High School operating on a split site. He said no new school had since been built as promised.

Sinead McCartan, explaining the process ahead if approval was given, said that the two schools could come together and the Western Board would seek economic approval to seek funding for a new school.

The Principal, Miss Elizabeth Armstrong, after hearing that this latest proposal was as a result of strategic planning, questioned how it could be strategic when South West College was left out of the equation altogether to which the Board officials said they were the responsibility of the Department of Employment and Learning.

That means that three educational authorities, the Western Education Board, Department of Education and Department of Employment and Learning are responsible for schools and colleges but parents wondered how much joined up thinking went on between them.

Parents also demanded that the Education Minister should speak to them directly.

Parents also questioned the Board officials on why they were “punishing a successful school”.