Five secondary schools in Oldham have racked up debts of more than £2m. Education chiefs in the borough have now pledged to claw back the cash and keep a closer eye on budgets.
But union leaders branded the massive overspend as ‘scandalous’. Three of the five schools closed in September to become academies, leaving debts of £1.3m.
They included Counthill, which had an overspend of £720,000.
South Chadderton closed with debts of £335,000 and a further £209,000 overspend was left when Kaskenmoor shut down.
It means the rest of borough’s schools will be hit in the pocket as the council tries to recover the deficit.
And Failsworth School, which owes £582,000, and Our Lady’s in Royton, which is £84,000 in the red, have been ordered to provide the council with detailed recovery plans.
Oldham council says it is not unusual for closing schools to leave debts, but has introduced more robust procedures to monitor school budgets.
It lays most of the blame with head teachers and governors. Coun Lynne Thompson, cabinet member for finance, said: "The governors of these schools have behaved unacceptably.
"Schools have independent budgets provided by central government.
"The council oversees their financial standing but spending is controlled by governing bodies, who are responsible for seeing that their school lives within its means.
"Checks have revealed that governors at five schools have failed to do that."
Tony Harrison, secretary of Oldham’s branch of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The council has a legal duty to oversee these schools and their spending.
"If things are going wrong they have a responsibility to intervene. Of course the mismanagement of school is down to the heads and governors, but the council cannot simply wash their hands of this. They must share the blame and prevent it from ever happening again.
"Every school in Oldham will now suffer because of the behaviour of a few, which is scandalous."
The overspend at Our Lady's led to the decision to bring the planned merger with St Augustine’s forward by a year to create a new Catholic high school.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Salford described the deficit as ‘extremely unfortunate’ and said careful budgeting would clear the debt.
Failsworth school racked up its massive debt by bringing in additional teaching staff to improve standards when it couldn’t afford it, and an accounting error which did not take in the loss of extra funding for split-site schools.
Head teacher John Meagher and chairwoman of Governors Coun Barbara Dawson said the school had reduced its staff numbers by 12 and pledged tighter control over its spending until the debt is paid back 2014.
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Scandalous is absolutely the right word to use - and just what are the implications for schools like Saddleworth of this gross mismanagement ?
we all know where the massive overspend has occured.
all the wasteful spending converting these schools into academies is where the money has gone.
even just paperwork and planning costs money.
now considering the idea of academies was to save money by attracting outside sponsorship and investment, sure these investors will be footing these bills as their precious academies have been funded by the public purse?
but this is ombc and i know they wont like that idea!
As a CouncilTax payer to OMBC I am, once again, astounded that they are proceeding with thie daft Academies scheme. Only a few'progressives' want them, the rest of us would be happier to see the existing schools improved and better teaching staff employed.
What is the point of keeping inefficient staff and governors and merely shifting them to expensive new buildings?
How about sacking a few head masters to recover some of the money that has been overspent?
As a teacher myself i feel that some of the views taken on this are a little unfair, i do however agree that throwing money at struggling school to turn them into an academy is not the answer.Class numbers are high and teachers are pushed to the limit with work load, we do not start at 9 and finish at 3 many work into the night dedicating time to their students, helping fund excellent teaching staff and resources for existing schools would far outweigh the benefits of changing a struggling school into an academy, many of which are exactly the same with a different name. It was widely publicised that the schools for the future project was way under funded so why is ombc suprised at the deficiate now being seen?
Students enjoy shiny new facilities and yes they are great to work in, however from my point of view this section of the education budget would be better spent improving the schools and the teachers which we already have.
Wasn't the Governing body of Counthill actually appointed by Oldham Council, sometime around November 2008 I think it was, after previous performance issues?