South Wales Evening Post - 4 May 2007
A Swansea school is thought to be on the verge of axing a number of teachers as part of money-saving measures, the Evening Post has learned.
It is understood that teaching staff at Bishop Gore Comprehensive School in Sketty are expected to be handed compulsory redundancy packages. Three other permanent staff members have also been told there will be no job for them from September, and temporary staff are not having their contracts renewed.
The school's head teacher Peter Wilcox has refused to confirm the move, but did not rule out compulsory redundancies.
However, a teacher at the school, who does not want to be named, claimed the decision had already been taken. He added: "One full-time teacher and two-part time staff were told on Tuesday that they were going. Temporary staff were also told that they would not be back in September.
"These are teachers in their mid-30s or early 40s at most. It is not the same as offering early retirement to staff at the end of their career.
"We understand that there are falling pupil numbers but it seems that not enough has been done to deal with the effects of that.
"The feeling among teachers is that the same thing could happen next year."
Mr Wilcox said: "Bishop Gore, along with a number of secondary schools in Swansea, is facing challenging budget decisions this year."
He blamed falling pupil numbers and said insufficient cash was given to schools from the Assembly, so school budgets are coming under pressure, meaning possible compulsory staff cuts.
He said: "The governing body is now following agreed procedures to achieve the necessary savings.
"It is too early in the process, and would be inappropriate in any case, to comment on individual circumstances but compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out."
It is thought that 11 of the 14 secondary schools in the county are facing budget shortfalls and a number have indicated staff cuts will be needed. However, this is the first case of compulsory redundancies.
Council leader Chris Holley said the problems facing schools were no surprise.In 2005 there was huge public opposition to council plans to merge Dylan Thomas school with Bishop Gore.
That would have seen Dylan Thomas close and around £20 million being spent on improving the Bishop Gore site.
Councillor Holley said: "We warned people that this situation would come. We have said that surplus places cost money.
"When we were looking at reorganisation, we wanted to move away from a position where schools would face massive deficits in their budgets and the threat of redundancies.
"What we wanted to do was to be able to manage redundancies better.
"The problem now is that all the chickens are coming home to roost at the same time."
