A "fundamentally flawed" decision to shut a rural primary school in Co Tyrone must be withdrawn after it was revealed an education official sat on two separate committees that voted to approve the controversial closure, an MLA has said.
The latest call to keep St Mary's Primary in Fivemiletown open follows the chair of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), writing to the school's board of governors and admitting it was "inappropriate" for the individual to sit on both committees that agreed the school should close.
The body's chair, Bishop Donal McKeown, wrote to the board after it emerged the member of the CCMS’ Education Provision Committee also sat on the Education Authority’s (EA) Strategic Planning and Policy Committee and voted to ratify the proposed closure.
The letter followed a formal complaint by the board.
The school, which had 42 pupils last term, has been deemed "unsustainable" by the CCMS as it falls under a rural primary sustainability threshold of 105 pupils.
The proposed closure - announced in January - has sparked opposition in the area, including protests attended by parents, while an online petition to keep St Mary's open gathered almost 9,000 signatures.
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A separate legal challenge against the school closure is ongoing.
In his letter, Bishop McKeown said the dual membership of the individual on the CCMS and EA committees should have been declared at both meetings, adding: "We further consider that it is inappropriate to hold dual membership of both committees."
Board of governors chair Mairaid Kelly said ahead of the school welcoming pupils this week for the new term that the issue was "a deeply disappointing reflection of the failure of governance within CCMS".
She added: "It is beyond time that they withdrew this misguided proposal to close a thriving school."
Fermanagh and South Tyrone Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew said the conflict of interest issue was "very concerning".
"This adds to the growing concern within the wider community that this proposal is fundamentally flawed, and should be withdrawn," he said.
DUP MLA Deborah Erskine said she had written again to the CCMS to express concerns about the closure proposal process.
"As children across our community return to school in the coming days, I’m delighted to see yet another growth in enrolment at St Mary’s, and they know they have my continued support in seeking to remove this threat to their future," she said.
