Parents protest over school bus routes

By TOM GILMORE OVER 100 people attended a meeting in Clonboo on Monday night to protest about children from some villages around Corrandulla and Annaghdown having to seek places in already over-subscribed schools in Galway city, instead of Headford, if they want to avail of the school bus transport service. Changes made to school bus catchment areas last September have resulted in children being required to go to the school nearest them in the changed catchment areas. This change seems destined to hit home for more families next September, when younger children may have to go to post-primary schools in Galway City or Claregalway even though their older siblings are already attending Presentation College Headford.[private] One mother at the meeting said that new students starting in secondary schools next September from villages such as Baranna, Clonboo and Tonagurrane will be left with no option but to go to Galway city schools if they want to avail of the school bus service, even though some of their older brothers and sisters are going to Headford. â€Å“They are giving us no option but to send our younger children to secondary schools in the city. But we understand that the only ones there that have a few vacant places are Moneenageisha Community College and St Maryâ€â„¢s College. â€Å“They are trying to force this change on us, even though so many city schools are oversubscribed with pupils. It is a crazy change and is happening at a time when the school in Headford, where our older children are going, has extended its facilities and can comfortably cater for additional pupils,â€Â said the parent, who did not want to be named. Another parent said that the secondary school bus transport situation for potential new students from the Castlecreevy area was even more uncertain. â€Å“There will be ten or 15 new post-primary students coming on stream from our village from September onwards and we are really in no manâ€â„¢s land, as we donâ€â„¢t know if our new catchment area will be for city schools or for the one that is proposed to be opening in Claregalway,â€Â said the mother. â€Å“If the younger ones have to move to schools in either of those catchment areas it will split up the children of families in our village during their school days, as some of the older ones are already going to the Headford school,â€Â she added. Politicians at the Clonboo meeting included Galway West Independent TD Noel Grealish and Headford Fianna Fail Cllr Mary Hoade, and many of the parents present asked them to articulate their concerns to Minister Rúairi Quinn and officials at the Department of Education. â€Å“If the Minister fails to reach a compromise with us on these school bus catchment area changes, we will take our protest to the Dáil and place a picket on his office there if necessary,â€Â said one parent. When contacted about the situation a spokesperson for Bus Éireann said they had no comment to make other than to state that changes to school bus catchment areas were made, in agreement with the Department of Education, last September.[/private]