PARENTS have launched a campaign to fight council chiefs over their plans to close Fort Primary School.
Fighting For Fort has set up a website and plans a fundraising drive to help promote its campaign and attract more support.
Parents and others in the local community insist they have a "strong case" for opposing the council's plans.
They
want to demonstrate to education bosses they mean business and to encourage parents to keep their children at Fort until the final decision is taken by the council. Council bosses plan to close Royston, Burdiehouse and Drumbrae, as well as Fort, next summer.
Pupils from Fort would be sent to Trinity Primary if the closure – which will go out to consultation in August – goes ahead.
The group's fight centres on the amount of money that will be saved by closing the school and the large class sizes that will be created if Fort moves into Trinity Primary.
Parents believe that the savings will be minimal, as staff will be re-deployed and the site is being mothballed rather than sold off.
Campaign member Vikki Spence, who is also the secretary and treasurer of the school's parent council, said: "They have said in general terms that closing the four schools would save a lot of money.
"But the main cost of running Fort is staffing and they will all be re-deployed and because they're not selling the land, I can't see where they would make much money from.
"It would also cost money to accommodate 100 of our children at Trinity and we are trying to find out exactly how much that would be.
"Trinity Primary is also helping the Fighting For Fort group as it does not think the school could cope with the increased numbers of children. Trinity has the figures to show how overcrowded the school would be."
Fort's occupancy rate is just 33 per cent, and the council's figures show the roll has fallen by 15 per cent over the last five years.
Fighting For Fort is worried that some parents will remove their children from the school and add fuel to the council's argument about falling school rolls.
When the closure of nearby Bonnington school was announced last year, the roll fell dramatically between June and August 2008.
The group says the same pattern emerged five years ago when council bosses planned a merger with Trinity Primary.
Mrs Spence said: "This is a worry for us.
"This is what happened at Bonnington.
"People knew what was going to happen and they were reluctant to send their children into primary one thinking that they might have to move at the end of the year.
"One of the reasons our school has such a small roll is that every time we get threatened with closure, people leave. But we want to send the message out that we are not taking it lying down, we are fighting all the way."
The group is planning a fundraising event as part of the school's family fun day on 1 July.
The website can be found at http://fightingforfort.wordpress.com/
