Exciting new era dawns for Moate school

A new purpose-built secondary school for 1,000 students in Moate has cleared the planning hurdle with hopes that work will begin on-site during the next academic year.

It's a development that a delighted Chair of the Board of Management, former principal Kevin Duffy, estimated will be in the region of a €40 million investment in the town and will usher in a new education era.

The construction project will see all current premises barring the St Joseph's building, the oldest on-site, and the one facing the road, demolished as part of a phased construction project to provide a new state-of-art secondary school spanning 9,600 square metres.

“We're absolutely overjoyed. It's exactly the decision we were waiting for and hoping for so it's really good news for the school, for students, for the town and everybody concerned,” Moate CS principal Tom Lowry told the Westmeath Independent following approval by Westmeath County Council in recent days.

The school was first established in 1996 following the amalgamation of the Convent of Mercy Secondary School, the Carmelite College and Moate Vocational School.

As the school has grown with enrolment rising to 900 with another 300 in Moate Business College, the facilities, despite an extension in 2002, were not sufficient and he is delighted they will now have the specialist rooms, social areas, canteen, etc, of the kind they lacked in recent years.

“It will be much more contemporary, modern. It's a three-storey building at the back and then it joins with the only building that's being kept, the St Joseph's building (fronting onto the road). I certainly think it is a much more appropriate and suitable building for the number of students we have,” Mr Lowry, who has been principal for the last twelve years in Moate, added.

The construction of the new project will be carried out in two phases to allow for the day-to-day operations of the school to continue as the building progresses.

“I guess the first phase of the building is a 18-month phase and the second phase is a 12-month phase. The building of the three-storey building right along the perimeter of the back of the school (will be first) and students will move in. This will then allow for the rest of the school to be demolished.

“That will be linked with the present building that’s being retained, St Joseph’s. The estimate is two and half years, but that’s probably an optimistic estimate, but today is an optimistic day,” Mr Lowry, who oversees a total staff of 150, the town’s largest employer continued.

He expects the project design team to move forward now that approval has been garnered and the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), the agency involved, to initiate the tendering process. The Moate build is part of a bundle of six schools called Project Dargle.

“I anticipate that will take some time but I’d very disappointed if we didn’t see something being dug up in the next academic year,” he explained.

Former principal Kevin Duffy, who is the current chairperson of the Board of Management of Moate CS, praised the department for moving forward with a “top class facility” for the town.

“It’s absolutely fantastic news for the school community, and I think it’s fantastic news for the town of Moate. This is a really big project and for the school to achieve this, there is great credit due to everybody from the board to trustees, board, principal and staff for all of the work they have put in over the years,” he said, estimating the investment in the region of €40 million will have major spin-off benefits for the area.

During his time as principal there were only 700 students between the school and Moate Business College. However, it has grown over the intervening years and now it will have cutting edge facilities to match.

“We want to stress that during the building of this everything will done to ensure it impacts very little on the day-to-day running of the school. “Everything will done to ensure the project is done as seamlessly as possible without impacting on the school community,” Mr Duffy underlined on Friday.

The first phase will consist of the demolition of existing school buildings and construction of a three-storey extension, PE hall, ESB substation, provision of new temporary accommodation and removal and relocation of existing temporary buildings.

In the second phase, construction begins on the remaining elements of the extension and decanting of the existing St Joseph’s building or the old boarding school into the new extension.

There will be no impact to Moate Business College during the school construction, however, Mr Lowry said once the building is complete, he will turn his attentions to securing a “capital investment” to move it in the future as well.

Plans for the new school were approved on February 1 subject to twelve planning conditions.