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Moville principal breaks silence
08.10.10
by Caoimhinn Barr, Inishowen Independent
AN Inishowen principal has branded a Department of
Education report into his school as a ‘waste of
money’.
Headmaster of Scoil Eoghain in Moville, Gerard
McGeehan, alleged that the report - which described
the situation at the primary school as ‘seriously
deficient’ and ‘untenable’ - was littered with
inaccuracies.
He alleged he was being prevented from doing his job
by the current Board of Management at the Moville
school, which was officially opened by An Tanaiste
Mary Coughlan last June.
“The report claimed that there was a lack of
documentation but that is totally wrong because all
my documents were stored in the old school in
Moville, which I was locked out of,” Mr. McGeehan
alleged. He claimed the chair of the board would not
communicate with him.
“I was not consulted on recent appointments to the
school; I can’t work there. A number of staff
members have left Scoil Eoghain recently and the
Department needs to investigate that.” |
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Scoil Eoghain in Moville. |
Scoil Eoghain board
chairman, Fr. Peter Devlin, said he did not wish to
comment at this time.
After more than a decade in charge of Scoil Eoghain,
which was formed in 1996, Mr. McGeehan said much of
his work over the years had been forgotten.
“What the people of Moville need to remember is that
I established that school. I was very careful with
school funds over the years and accumulated a huge
surplus for the new building. There would be no
Scoil Eoghain if it wasn’t for me,” he said.
Mr. McGeehan, who is currently on a period of sick
leave, said he will be back in charge of the Moville
school as soon as he is declared medically fit to
return.
The Department report into Scoil Eoghain, published
online on Monday, claimed the Board of Management is
not functioning satisfactorily as a cohesive unit
because working relationships and purposeful
communications between it and the principal have
broken down.
It also found in-school management arrangements to
be ‘seriously deficient’. The effectiveness of the
role of the principal, it said, could not be
evaluated fully as he was on leave for almost all of
the evaluation process. |
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