Refurbishment of Harris Academy - Some Lingering Concerns

In the Dundee Evening Telegraph on Wednesday 30 September, the Leader the the Administration, Councillor Guild, suggested that he is baffled that I should not heartedly welcome the government announcement of funding support towards the cost of refurbishing Harris Academy. He also has questioned my commitment to Harris Academy.
Harris has a long and distinguished history as a leading school in Dundee and certainly needs and deserves comprehensive upgrading. While I welcome the announcement and wish the development well, I have some lingering well founded reservations about the government announcement and the Council's expression of interest.

I have continuing concerns about the price tag that the council attached to the scheme they forwarded to the government. This feasibility study does not contain any allowance for professional fees for Architects etc. It does not include any provision for contingencies, which may be significant in a set of buildings that dates back to the 1930s. I have continuing concerns about the Goverment's silence about their percentage contribution to the project. If this was favourable I think they would have mentioned it in their press release. If the government's proportion of funding is lower and if the Council's costings are unrealistically low either the Administration's ambitions for the rehabilitation of Harris Academy might be trimmed and/or more money will need to be raided from another budget. I think that parents and carers in the West End, Whitfield and Lochee-Charleston who are waiting for their planned new Primary schools will notice that Councillor Guild only protected the new Council Offices and city Centre Swimming Pool, when the capital plan for big projects is reviewed in February. Does this mean that the new five new Primary Schools and three nurseries, the Labour led Administration brought forward for West End, Whitfield and Lochee-Charleston, might be delayed or deleted?

During my period as Education Convener, the Harris Academy feasibility study was instructed and undertaken. The study was concluded and dated March 2009 which precedes the SNP taking the Administration in early April 2009. Harris Academy would have been tackled earlier had the search for an alternative site for a new build replacement been successful. The feasibility study recognised that the search for another site within the Harris Academy catchment area should be abandoned and onsite alternative approaches should be explored and adopted. Following the announcement from the Scottish Government, on Wednesday 17 June, of a school building programme supported by £800 million of Scottish Government funding to be shared by all 32 local authorities in Scotland, I have consistently asked the new Education Convener, Councillor Liz Fordyce, to endorse Harris Academy as her first next priority for investment for school building in the city. She declined to do this until last week and did not feel able to confirm that an expression of interest had been forwarded to the government. I raised this in both at an Education Committee before the summer recess and in a press release that was reported. It was also published on my website in June 2009.
Harris Academy Should be Number One School Building Priority in Dundee
"Will SNP Education Convener Liz Fordyce now confirm that Harris Academy will be her number one priority on the Council's shopping list?"

I hope the public, if not Councillor Guild, will appreciate that, I am campaigning for a really comprehensive refurbishment of Harris Academy, because the pupils and teachers deserve 21st century facilities that are on a par with those that are evident in the Academies and High Schools that have already been rebuilt or refurbished in Dundee."

Call for Harris Academy Refurbishment in Dundee as Matter of Urgency

Laurie Bidwell, Labour’s Education Spokesperson on the City Council in Dundee has placed a motion on the agenda of the next Education Committee (Monday 28 September) demanding the declaration of the plans for the next phase of school building work in Dundee; especially the major refurbishment of Harris Academy. During his time as Education Convenor, a feasibility study was conducted by the City Council Education Department which examined options for improving or replacing the Harris Academy buildings. This was shared with members of the Harris Academy Parent Council and West End Councillors in Spring 2009. This study conceded that there was an urgent need to improve or replace the Harris Academy Buildings to bring them up to modern standards to meet the ideals of a 21st century school. Compared with the gleaming new St Paul’s Academy and the soon to be completed Grove Academy, Harris Academy has major deficiencies more particularly:
- The existing classroom dimensions, particularly in the 1930s block, are below an accepted minimum for modern teaching practices;
- The building falls well short in meeting the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) legislative requirements and is inadequate in satisfying the accessibility needs for pupils and staff with disabilities;
- There is currently no facility to allow expressive arts to be fully and satisfactorily integrated into the school curriculum;
- There are inappropriate and inadequate pupil social areas within the building and dining areas are insufficient;
- The location, distribution and condition of pupil toilets are not conducive to providing a safe, secure pupil environment, and are difficult for staff to supervise;
- Traffic and pupil movement around the school, and entering and exiting the school, creates hazards posing significant safety concerns particularly at the start and end of the school day and
- The Harris Academy campus presents significant challenges for fire safety.

In the absence of a suitable alternative site within the catchment of the school, the feasibility study concluded that the most practicable option was to comprehensively refurbish the existing school buildings at a cost close to £20M. The urgency of Harris Academy’s case is primarily educational, but if the refurbishment is tackled sooner rather than later, the spiralling cost of maintaining the existing buildings would be avoided.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell, Labour Education Spokesperson on Dundee City Council, said:
“I think it is important that the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce, urgently commits to secure funding for the upgrading of Harris Academy because, using the Scottish Government's School Estate criteria, Harris Academy buildings have been judged to be 'poor'. Following the opening of St Paul’s RC Academy last Tuesday and the imminent completion of the rebuild of Grove Academy as part of the PPP school building programme in the city, Harris needs to be upgraded to avoid the conclusion that there is a two tier set of secondary school buildings in Dundee; more specifically, the gleaming new St Paul’s RC Academy, the rebuilt Grove and Morgan Academies and the refurbished St John’s RC High School in contrast with the deficiencies in the Harris Academy buildings. A comprehensively refurbished Harris Academy will build on the valued traditions of the school and provide enhanced opportunities for teaching and learning.”

“I have questioned the Education Convener, SNP Councillor Liz Fordyce, more than once at the Education Committee inviting her to declare the council's priorities and programme for the next phase of school building in the city. She has consistently declined to do this. Why is she so shy declaring her programme of school building and refurbishment in the city? I thought that she would want to demonstrate that she was determined to make a reality of the SNP May 2007 electoral promise to 'match Labour's, school building programme brick for brick'? Declaring Harris Academy as a priority would be an important step towards this. Parents and carers in Dundee will want to know from Councillor Fordyce, whether she has any plans, for new schools and school refurbishment, beyond Labour's programme for Dundee?"

Dundee West MP, Jim McGovern, said:
“I think the case for Harris being the next major school building project in Dundee is overwhelming. I hope the Scottish Government will prioritise Harris Academy in the first round of work to be part funded by them via the Scottish Futures Trust. This will not only improve the education of children in the city but also help to secure jobs in the construction industry in Dundee.”

West End Councillor Richard McCready said:
“Harris Academy has a proud record promoting the attainment and achievement of generations of children. The feasibility study surely makes its own case. I have consistently supported the prioritisation of Harris Academy and will do so again at the Education Committee next week.”