Up to 30 schools face the axe in Northumberland in the next four years to plug a funding and surplus places crisis.
Coulson Park First School in Ashington
Northumberland County Council will this morning announce the planned closure programme - as many as one in seven schools - which is intended to save millions of pounds and slash the number of surplus pupil places, The Journal can reveal.
Yesterday, stunned parents at three schools in the Ashington area learned they were the first to be earmarked for closure when they received letters from the council - before the headteachers themselves knew about the proposals.
Last night a behind-closed-doors meeting was held in the town where full details were given to headteachers and school governors of Alexandra Middle School and Coulson Park First School, in the town, and nearby Linton First School, which could close by next year.
The local education authority got a hostile response. Deputy headteacher of Ashington High School, Ian Robertson, who was at the meeting, said: "We were angry the LEA had told parents before we knew ourselves."
He said once the possibility of closure was made public, schools suffered as parents sought to remove children and headteachers faced recruitment and retention problems.
Last night Coun Jim Wright, cabinet member for child services for the council, said there would "inevitably be some school closures" as it cut 7,000 surplus places - 14pc - across the county.
He said the continuing budget crisis, which has left many schools up to £100,000 short this year, was a factor in the council's proposal to close schools but the key issue was surplus places. The council has to slash the number of empty desks by the year 2006 to meet the Government's target of a maximum 10pc surplus places.
To do this, tackle funding and maximise the use of its resources, school closures were "inevitable", he said.
Coun Wright said the main places affected by closures would be Ashington, Berwick and tiny village schools.
The council's budgetary and surplus places problems would have been substantially addressed had a £111m private finance initiative (PFI) bid succeeded. Forty-four schools would have become 37, with 15 new schools, but the plan was turned down by the Government.
The new closure plans were described as a tragedy and a very sad day for the county by teaching unions and headteachers last night.
Ashington High School headteacher Ken Tonge was shocked when he was told by The Journal last night. He had been representing Northumberland high schools at a meeting yesterday morning on the county's schools' budget crisis but had "heard no mention of schools having to close".
The meeting proposed injecting £1.5m to safeguard 19 jobs and boost the county's 213 schools after the council said rising costs had not been met by a new Government funding formula and smaller grants.
Mr Tonge said: "The LEA also said the county should continue to lobby the Government for a fairer funding formula but never mentioned any closures to save money. This will be a great shame and a sad day for Northumberland if they go ahead and close so many of these schools, although I cannot comment further until I know the LEA's reasons."
Peter Butler, a former teacher from Cullercoats who has just stepped down as national president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said: "This is an absolute tragedy for Northumberland and will change the future of education in the county forever."
Conservative Hexham MP Peter Atkinson said: "We have to make very careful decisions about closing schools where school rolls are falling, but closing schools because of the chaos in the funding system would be appalling."
