Workers at cash crisis school face redundancy

Governors believe cutting staff may be the only way to meet a huge budget deficit, but the headteacher today said the school had only received an indicative budget and the situation was constantly changing.

He said there was a funding difficulty but said he was hopeful the problems could be sorted without any forced redundancies.

Llanfyllin county councillor Peter Lewis told Wednesday night's meeting he had attended a four-hour governors' meeting on Tuesday.

He said: "The governors met to discuss a very large deficit in the school budget for this year. The governors have been looking at ideas how to save costs to narrow the budget deficit."

He said it was feared the only to reduce the deficit is to implement redundancies.

The councillors were told it was not yet clear how many, or which posts, could go.

Councillor Darren Mayor said he understood the move had been made because of changes in the school budget. He said: "They were presented with a budget which was significantly lower than they expected this year. This is a problem across Powys.

"It is important to say this is not the school's fault. It is not the governors' fault or the staff's fault. Everybody is in an uncertain place."

But headteacher Carl Mincher said: "Hopefully the picture may change for the better as we move towards the final budget position.

"We are actively pursuing all measures possible to secure a balanced budget if possible for next year, hopefully without any forced redundancies."