Naas Community College has finally been granted permission by the Department of Education to proceed to tender. This means the new school building can proceed at Millennium Park and is a great relief to parents, teachers, management and the entire school community.
The school started enrollment in 2014 and has reached maximum capacity at its current temporary home in Craddockstown. The new building will cater for 1,000 pupils and is a state of the art design with facilities for music, art, science and other subjects as well as dedicated ASD units.
On behalf of the board of management and the school community, I welcome today’s news, it comes after a sustained lobbying effort, I had been raising it with the Minister weekly and the parents association had just started a petition and campaign. But the clarity and progress is now very welcome and we look forward to moving to the next stage.
This is a very positive step for the school and also for the wider Naas community. I want to pay credit to principal Ciaran Keegan, the board of management, the ETB and the wider school community for managing the situation to this point. We look forward to working with the department and local stakeholders to ensure the project moves quickly through the remaining phases and opens in the new building as soon as possible.
The tender takes between 6-7 months, construction between 9-18, the school is now on track to move into new home for September 2020 if all goes to plan. The main thing is the ball is now rolling and the plan is moving forwards.