Work on major new school build could start next summer
A new multi-million euro school building for Coláiste Íosagáin in Portarlington has moved a step closer, after the school was given approval to proceed to the tendering stage.
Planning approval for the new school development was granted in 2024, with principal, Justin Brown, saying this week that he hopes to see "work on the ground" commence in the summer of 2027.
Speaking to the Offaly Independent, the principal welcomed news that documents for a new school building had now been approved to go to tender, the latest stage of a process which commenced in 2014.
When the new school building is ultimately built, the school principal said it will be "one of the biggest" in the Midlands region, with a "green energy focus", it will offer "state-of-the-art faciilties" for students from the local community.
Designed by Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects, the new school will be in an 'X' shape, part three-storey, part two-storey, covering a vast area of 12,646sqm.
It will have 48 classrooms, 24 specialist teaching rooms with associated preparation rooms, four special needs classrooms with a Special Needs Education suite, and a multi-purpose hall with associated PE accommodation.
The new school building will also incorporate a library, staff room, administration rooms, toilets and stores.
Some 104 car parking spaces are planned at the school, along with 120 bicycle parking spaces. Seven hard play or multi-use games courts are also scheduled for the site, along with a special educational needs garden and play spaces, activity courtyards, a grass pitch, and roof-mounted solar panels.
The Coláiste Íosagáin principal said approval for the issuing of tender documents for the projects marks a further "milestone" in the school's aims to deliver a new state-of-the-art building which, when complete, will accommodate 1,300 students.
Currently, eight blocks of prefabs are in place for students of the co-ed school. Although, they are "good quality" prefabs, the school principal said they were "not ideal" for students in the modern age. "While our prefabs are of good quality, students are continuously moving from unit to unit and during the winter months in particular, this is certainly not an ideal situation.
When our new building is finally complete, all of our student body will be able to learn under the one roof," Mr Brown said. The school principal joined Coláiste Íosagáin as a teacher in 2002 before being appointed to the chief role in 2022. Talk of a new school building to "accommodate growing student numbers" has long been a key topic of conversation during his time in the school.
He added that the school will be built within parameters laid out by the Department of Education, which he believes, will speed up the process.
"The proposed development will be procured through the Department of Education and Youth’s contractor and reserved specialist frameworks. An expression of interest process will now be undertaken to finalise the list of contractors to be invited to tender. "This approach will reduce lead-in times, minimise tendering risk and support an efficient progression through the procurement process to the award of the final contract," Mr Brown said.
"I look forward to the tender process being completed so that the contractor can be appointed to build this new school. A new, modern school building is so well deserved by our students, staff and the local community," the school principal concluded.