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Moville principal breaks silence 08.10.10

by Caoimhinn Barr, Inishowen Independent

AN Inishowen principal has branded a Department of Education report into his school as a ‘waste of money’.
Headmaster of Scoil Eoghain in Moville, Gerard McGeehan, alleged that the report - which described the situation at the primary school as ‘seriously deficient’ and ‘untenable’ - was littered with inaccuracies.
He alleged he was being prevented from doing his job by the current Board of Management at the Moville school, which was officially opened by An Tanaiste Mary Coughlan last June.
“The report claimed that there was a lack of documentation but that is totally wrong because all my documents were stored in the old school in Moville, which I was locked out of,” Mr. McGeehan alleged. He claimed the chair of the board would not communicate with him.
“I was not consulted on recent appointments to the school; I can’t work there. A number of staff members have left Scoil Eoghain recently and the Department needs to investigate that.”
Scoil Eoghain in Moville.
Scoil Eoghain board chairman, Fr. Peter Devlin, said he did not wish to comment at this time.
After more than a decade in charge of Scoil Eoghain, which was formed in 1996, Mr. McGeehan said much of his work over the years had been forgotten.
“What the people of Moville need to remember is that I established that school. I was very careful with school funds over the years and accumulated a huge surplus for the new building. There would be no Scoil Eoghain if it wasn’t for me,” he said.
Mr. McGeehan, who is currently on a period of sick leave, said he will be back in charge of the Moville school as soon as he is declared medically fit to return.
The Department report into Scoil Eoghain, published online on Monday, claimed the Board of Management is not functioning satisfactorily as a cohesive unit because working relationships and purposeful communications between it and the principal have broken down.
It also found in-school management arrangements to be ‘seriously deficient’. The effectiveness of the role of the principal, it said, could not be evaluated fully as he was on leave for almost all of the evaluation process.
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