This was one of many interesting facts which emerged at last Tuesday's meeting of Broughty Ferry Community Council, attended by Jim Collins, Dundee's director of education; and Liza Waghorn, with responsibility for primary education.
Mr Collins sa
id the plan may seem to have come up suddenly but they had been looking at the necessary rewiring of Eastern Primary for some time.
The original plan was to either do the refurbishment during the summer for a period of three years or relocate the pupils on a temporary basis for one term.
It was decided that a further sensible option might be to relocate to Grove on a permanent basis.
There were four main factors for this:
* The relocation will save a great deal of money on the refurbishment and provide a capital receipt when Eastern is sold.
* The plan to locate social work staff in the old Grove had led to unhappiness among residents as there would be pressure on an already difficult parking situation to accommodate 300 people. The school only requires 70 parking places.
* The accommodation available in Grove provides far more room and space with the possibility of room to expand.
* The main driver of the move was that the facilities available to the pupils would be far superior to those that could ever be provided in the Eastern School.
Ms Waghorn added that the head teacher and all the staff at Eastern are delighted with the prospect.
She said there are opportunities to use the secondary school facilities such as the swimming pool. The classrooms are larger and brighter and would have room for a music room and an art room which could not be provided in Eastern. There would be access to language specialists.
Mr Collins said the meeting with the community council was part of the consultation process which would take a minimum of 30 days. It had started before the summer break and would continue when schools reconvened. This would involve parents, every one of whom had been written to, the pupil body and parent council.
He went on to say there will be two public meetings, the first on Monday, August 30, in Eastern School and the second on Tuesday, August 31, in Grove.
He emphasised that things were still at an early stage in the design of new facilities and this process would be informed by the consultation. Each meeting would have notes taken that would feed into the process.
During a question and answer session, the following points emerged.
Whilst catchment areas are constantly under review, there would be no changes as a consequence of the move.
Parents will see the plans for the old Grove building, and before the public meetings will be able to view the school's interior.
Everything that can be moved from Eastern will be, including the astro-turf.
It is not possible at this stage to say what will happen to the Grade A listed Eastern building. Conversion to housing is a possibility.
