A senior councillor has asked for the contents of a probe into the financial failings of setting up Ysgol Calon Cymru to be considered when decisions are made on the school.
On Tuesday, June 22, Powys County Council’s Independent/Conservative cabinet will be decided on how to proceed with proposals to split up Ysgol Calon Cymru.
Options on the table include plans for a new 11–18-year-old English-medium campus in Llandrindod Wells; and turn the Builth Wells campus into an all through four to 18 years old all through Welsh medium school.
Chairman of the Audit and Governance committee, Cllr John Morris said: “Internal audit have undertaken an investigation into circumstances surrounding Ysgol Calon Cymru and particularly its growing dept problem.
“I have pressed for this report to come forward for some time to feed into any future plans for this area, but it is still awaited.
“I am really concerned about this failure just a few years on from the formation of Ysgol Calon Cymru and that lessons will not be learned this time.
“It is clear that there were mistakes made in developing the present model that has been extremely costly to the council in financial terms.
“Budget deficits of around £1 million were written off when Ysgol Calon Cymru was established, and we now see a substantial increasing deficit.
“It will be equally important that lessons learned from this failing project are also highlighted and errors avoided.”
Cllr Morris said that he wanted assurances from Cllr Davies that the report and its findings would be taken into account as part of the process.
Last summer, Cllr Pete Roberts as chairman of the Learning and Skills scrutiny committee asked for the investigation into Ysgol Calon Cymru.
Less than three years ago, Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells high schools were merged to become Ysgol Calon Cymru.
The schools became campuses under one headteacher and one governing body.
Closing deficit balances were written off when the schools closed, allowing Ysgol Calon Cymru to start from a neutral finance position.
But by March 31, 2020, it had already racked up a deficit of £131,302.
It had been hoped that the report would have been published by Christmas 2020, so that the Transformation Strategy could learn from past mistakes.
The cabinet report for the June 22 meeting shows that the school had a deficit at Ysgol Calon Cymru has increased to £173,450 by March 31, 2021.
The report predicts that this will grow to over £750,000 by the end of this financial year.
The estimated cost of building a new campus at Llandrindod Wells is £28 million and re-modelling the Builth Wells campus is £18 million.
Money for a feasibility study was agreed by the cabinet in May.
It is expected that the cabinet will agree to hold “informal engagement” in September and October.
A report on this will then go back to cabinet before the end of 2021.
If approved, formal consultation would then start as part of the statutory school reorganisation process.
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