Herm School’s annual cost of £160k ‘a mere pittance’
A States deputy has described the £160,000 cost per year of running Herm School as ‘a mere pittance’.
Deputy David De Lisle is a long-time champion of the school and led the successful requete to have it reopened after it was shut by Education, Sport & Culture in July.
He said the additional cost to ESC was almost nothing compared to the financial benefits the island brought to the local economy.
‘This totals well over £1m. a year from income taxes paid by resident and seasonal staff and customs-excise and import duties on beer, cider, spirits, tobacco and wine from Herm,’ he said.
The future of the school has been back in the headlines after Herm’s CEO Craig Senior announced he was leaving the island with his two children who currently make up half of the pupils at the school, and ESC reiterated its belief that keeping Herm’s primary school open was not a good idea for pupils or taxpayers.
ESC said that keeping the school open costs an additional £87,000 per year compared to the cost of educating Herm-based children at Vauvert School.
Deputy De Lisle said that the school remained critical for Herm’s future and had been an important part of the island’s success over the past 60 years.
‘The extension of the lease in 2017 to Herm Island Ltd was negotiated in good faith to secure the future sustainability of Herm and in full knowledge of both parties that the school played a vital part in recruitment and retention of staff on Herm,’ he said.
‘Recruitment of key staff with families would fall away without it.’
He added that the announcement that the island’s CEO was to leave his role, as his two children were approaching secondary school age, testified to the difficult staff retention problem the island would face without on-island schooling.
‘With younger children reaching school age and Herm actively recruiting for a number of new permanent staff the expectation is that a new intake of children will begin to emerge on Herm,’ he said. ‘That the children will not have to endure passages to Guernsey every day for their school lessons during the wintry weather is a great relief.’
