Mothball Skeld school, councillors to be told

SIC officials will advise councillors to mothball the Skeld Primary School at a meeting next week.

The controversial move would see pupils in the Skeld catchment area going to the Aith Junior High School from August instead.

Pupils and the parent council have voiced their strong opposition to the plans already.

Monday’s education and families committee will be asked to rubber-stamp the temporary mothballing “due to the very low numbers of children attending” the school.

An automatic mothballing procedure for any isles school kicks in when the pupil roll reaches 20 per cent or lower.

And councillors will be told on Monday that if they make the decision to keep Skeld open, the mothballing trigger will likely be hit again in September and November.

Council officials said this would be “very unfair on the school community”, as they would then have to go through the whole process again.