School communities are well used to make or break meetings deciding on their future but a meeting of the Western Education and Library Board today will seriously affect them, at least in the short to medium term.

The WELB are expected to “sign off” on preferred proposals for area planning which will have implications for many small rural primary schools currently struggling with enrolment numbers.

With ceilings set for what should be a viable school, the WELB are expected to give schools a fighting chance to save their own institutions by asking them to look at how they should address their futures. Just because a school has served a community for 50 years does not mean it will continue to do so in the future. The landscape has changed, with the demography of the school catchment areas in some cases completely different from when the schools were built. More people are being encouraged to move into towns and villages and this leaves some isolated schools more vulnerable.

The buzz word now is “sustainability” and if schools cannot meet their financial obligations, never mind educational commitments, then they are likely to be in trouble.

Many schools in the county have been looking seriously at their futures, using shared education projects to maximise funding that is available yet allowing pupils share new experiences.

There is good news that the WELB will not be earmarking school closures or amalgamations at to-day’s crucial meeting but that does not say that will not happen in the future. It would seem that the ball is firmly back in the schools’ playgrounds for them to decide on their own futures; how they maximise enrolments, looking at possible increases in the birth rates in their areas.

That may mean working together with neighbouring schools more often, getting the right teacher: pupil ratio right and encouraging their own communities to support their schools as far as possible.