The Spiritan Education Trust has appointed a manager for Templeogue College in south Dublin after four members from the board of management stepped down from their roles.
In a letter to staff on Wednesday, Dr Nicholas Cuddihy, executive officer of the trust, said: “With the board now not quorate the responsibility for the governance of the school falls back to us as patron.
“We have commenced a recruitment drive to identify and train new members for a new board.”
The move comes after a Department of Education inspection report found that a significant number of teachers at Templeogue College had been dissatisfied with the leadership of the school.
The inspection took place earlier this year at the boys’ secondary school which has been at the centre of grievances and mediation efforts between leadership and some staff.
A mediator earlier this year found that many staff reported the atmosphere as “toxic” and pointed to a “clash of cultures” between leadership and core staff.
The department’s whole school evaluation report on management, leadership and learning at the 700-student school stated that the quality of teaching and learning was good overall and teachers and school leaders had set high expectations for students.
It said the principal, deputy principal, assistant principals and other school leaders collectively managed and oversaw the smooth day-to-day running of the school, but improvement was needed in some areas including internal communication and communication with parents.
“While some teachers reported very positive working relationships with the senior management team, a significant number of teachers were disaffected and reported dissatisfaction with current leadership of the school,” it found.
In his letter, Mr Cuddihy said to support the school in implementing the recommendations of the whole school evaluation report in full, “the patron is appointing a single manager for the school while we wait for the appointment of a new board of management.
“This is a mechanism that has been used before in schools to provide an injection of focused governance expertise for a period of time.
“The manager will oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the whole-school evaluation and prepare for a new board of management to take over, ideally before the end of this academic year.”
Mr Cuddihy said a member of the trust’s executive team would act as manager in the short term, working with school principal and leadership team, “while we identify the best candidate for the role”.
The trust is designated by the Spiritans, the Catholic religious congregation previously known as the Holy Ghost Fathers, to act as patron to its schools.
