The CEO of Co. Louth VEC, Dr. Pádraig Kirk, has said that it is critical that the site for the new post-primary school earmarked for Dundalk is given full and detailed consideration before its location is finalised. The Department of Education and Skills plan to establish a new 1,000 place post-primary school in the town by September 2014.

Co. Louth VEC is making an application to the Department to become patron of the new school and have been active in engaging with the public in recent months to spell out its vision for the school. The VEC produced and circulated a brochure regarding the proposed new school, it has visited all primary schools in Dundalk to speak with pupils and distribute expression of interest forms and a new website has been established, www.newschooldundalk.ie, where parents can find out more about the VECs plans for the new school. CEO, Dr. Kirk, said that he was extremely pleased with the public reaction to its campaign to date, “at this stage we have literally had hundreds of expression of interest forms returned to us; this is a major vote of confidence by the public in the VEC. Under the VECs stewardship the new school will be a model of excellence, and the organisation looks forward to working with all sections of the community in making our application a reality”.

Dr. Kirk added that it was critical that the most appropriate site was chosen for the new school. He said that his preference, “would be for up to a 20 acre site in the vicinity of the town; a site of this size would allow for a large modern school building, a spacious and high quality sports gymnasium, a number of playing pitches and hard core activity areas, as well as for further expansion into the future when needed”. Dr. Kirk said that the VECs mapping of all of the primary and post-primary schools in the Dundalk catchment area highlights a concentration of schools in the town centre, with a small scattering of schools on the south side of the town, and very few to the north of the town.

Dr. Kirk said that while there are many advantages to having a school as close to the town centre as possible, there are also parts of the town that have seen considerable development in recent years, especially during the boom times, but that now find themselves ill-served by amenities and services such as schools. The CEO encouraged the public, and especially parents of prospective students for the new school, to log onto www.newschooldundalk.ie and make their views known on their preferred location for the new post-primary school. The CEO said that, “it was important that parents take the opportunity to make their views known on this important development; we will only ever get one opportunity to get this right and it is important that all views are made known”.

The VEC is actively considering the most suitable location for the new school planned for Dundalk.