A SITE for the new £30 million high school for St Andrews should be identified within months.
That was confirmed this week as parents and other members of the community attended a public meeting in Madras College last night (Thursday), updating them on progress.
Seen as an immediate necessity by HMIe inspectors, who have twice condemne
d accommodation at the Kilrymont Road and South Street school, a single-site replacement for Madras College is regarded by Fife Council as just one of a number of key projects.
A new Dunfermline High School is also being progressed with much the same timescale as that for Madras.
And concern has been expressed over the timescale for the start of work to other Fife schools further down the list – Burntisland Primary, Auchmuty High School and Kirkcaldy East High School.
As previously reported in the Citizen, council officials have continually sounded a note of caution over Madras College.
Alan Paul, asset manager, has pointed out that £29 million still has to be found to complete the new building and ways of securing that will be part of the business case put before councillors.
He also warned sequencing the projects would be driven by "practical rather than political" issues.
Ian Robertson, head of asset and facilities management services, has said a business case could result in a recommendation that a project should not progress.
Approval of both the Fife Structure Plan and St Andrews and District Local Plan is also crucial to the development of the new Madras College.
In June last year, the council pledged £1 million towards developing a business case for the new school.
Work on that is set to start at the beginning of April and should be completed by the end of June.
Five site options currently being considered are – leaving things as they are (not an option for HMIe); extension or refurbishment of the Kilrymont site; extension and remodelling of the South Street campus; a new build at Kilrymont or a new build at another site, to be identified.
Morag Wallace, the council's partnerships manager in corporate asset management, who attended last night's meeting, said any unsuitable sites would be ruled out after initial assessments and councillors would be presented with a cost benefit analysis of the remaining ones in August this year.
From that, detailed design development would go ahead and it was hoped construction of the new school would be finished by September 2012.
The council has set October 2012 as the provisional occupation date for both the new Madras College and Dunfermline High School.
The main aim last night was to establish a 12-strong local development group consisting of education staff (both teaching and non-teaching), pupils, community services staff, parent council representatives and delegates from feeder primary schools, as well as community organisations, to ensure information is distributed to everyone concerned.
