The future of the asbestos-hit Cwmcarn High School will be discussed by councillors at a special meeting next month.
A special meeting of Council will take place at Penallta House council offices in Ystrad Mynach at 5pm on Wednesday April 17.
The school was closed on October 12 last year after a report by Santia Asbestos Management Ltd recommended that school buildings should be demolished because of widespread airborne asbestos. Since then, the school’s pupils have re-located to the former Coleg Gwent campus in Ebbw Vale.
But a report published by the Health and Safety Executive laboratory (HSL) has said the original findings by Santia may have been overstated. Another report by company Ensafe, commissioned by the school itself, found the decision by the council to close the school was “understandable” but not supported by any airborne fibre testing sample results.
The latest report, again commissioned by the school and undertaken by Ensafe, states asbestos removal and remediation works could total almost £1million before the school can re-open. This is the preferred option for the school and governing body.
A range of options are currently being put together for councillors to consider at the meeting before agreeing a way forward.
The council has also asked the Welsh Government for funding to help with the situation.
Cllr Rhianon Passmore, cabinet member for education, said: “I’m sure the school and the wider community will welcome the news that the date has been set for this important meeting.
“We fully recognise the strength of feeling in the community and all concerned want to agree a way forward as a matter of urgency. We have a duty to protect the health and wellbeing of pupils at the school and must ensure that all options are considered so councillors can make a fully informed choice about the future of the site.”
Meanwhile, David Ashton, director of the field operations directorate at the Health and Safety Executive, has told MPs sitting on an education select committee at the House of Common that Cwmcarn High School was safe to re-open.
At the committee meeting earlier this month he said: “We did electron microscopy in that school, and our advice to the local authority there is that it is perfectly safe to re-open that school because the actual levels, by that more sophisticated method, were at the limits of measurable quantification.”
The electron microscopy tests, Mr Ashton said, were more sophisticated that previous ones carried out.