At last week’s Cabinet meeting, the council’s Managing Director, Dave Burbage, confirmed that a report would be heading to the December Cabinet meeting regarding Cowes Enterprise College.
He didn’t go into detail but in a recent letter, Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP said,
“Cowes Enterprise College is funded on an equal basis with the island’s other schools. There should be no implication for the other schools’ budgets.
“I welcome the Council’s commitment to fund the necessary capital costs to ensure that the building is fit for purpose.”
Fit for purpose?
Readers may remember during the September’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel meeting, Cllr Whitehouse questioned whether the new building was fit for purpose and what revenue implications the new building would have on overall educational expenditure on the Island.
A forced change to the design of the new building resulted in it having to accommodate 150 air conditioning units that were not originally budgeted for.
Additional costs
We asked the council if they could expand on Mr Gove’s comment about “necessary capital costs to ensure that the building is fit for purpose”.
Richard Priest, cabinet member for children’s service, said:
“The council has been proactive in securing alternative arrangements to complete the outstanding works and bring the building up to standard. Proposals for completing the project are being finalised and will be published, for approval, in a report going before Cabinet in December.
“Our focus is on providing the best learning environment for children to achieve personal success.”
