THREE other Glasgow schools included in the council's rationalisation plans could equally lay claim to have been given the political football treatment, writes Carlos Alba.
Notre Dame was recently the subject of an informal consultation on removal of single-sex status, coupled with a move to North Kelvinside Academy, whose pupils would merge with those from Cleveden Secondary.
The move to change buildings has now been dropped, as has the co-educational proposal, following what was widely perceived as successful lobbying by Roman Catholic and Muslim interests.
The schools are among 12 secondaries facing closure or amalgamation in a bid to save #7m.
Mantra-like claims from councillors that rationalisation plans are based on sound and pre-determined educational criteria are sounding increasingly hollow, not least among parents with children at Cleveden Secondary who are now applying to have the school opted-out of local authority control.
They point to the continued success of nearby Jordanhill - two miles down Great Western Road - a school run by appointed governors, funded directly from central government.
Plans for Notre Dame and North Kelvinside involved building an extension to Cleveden to accommodate the displaced pupils. The proposals sparked safety fears that the playground will become a building site.
As things stand, North Kelvinside will close as planned in the summer and Cleveden will have its extension built for the extra pupils.
A group of parents at Cleveden is writing to the school board requesting a move to self-governing status. It has already collected half of the 100 signatures necessary to make a formal approach to Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar in whose own Anniesland constituency the school is, ironically, located.
Group spokesman Eddie Glancy said: ''Parents are fed up with the way the education department has handled the rationalisation. Given that sort of background, what we feel is that we should investigate the option of opting-out.
''It would not stop the merger but what we feel is that it would certainly do us no harm. It also sends a message to the education department that we are dissatisfied with the service they are offering us.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article