Control of Bar Convent School

Having read with interest your report (October 27) on the future of Catholic education in York, I felt it was not made sufficiently clear why the Sisters of the Bar Convent wish to restrict competition for the headship of the new school in the first instance to members of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The reasons are:
I. They are giving a large part of their home, the present Bar Grammar School, as the upper part of the proposed new school.
2. They are supplying by far the largest part of the finance to start the new school.
If one gives one's home and a good deal of money to start a school, and if one's family happens to be made up of highly qualified teachers, then surely one has a right to a measure of control over the School.
The alternative is that with a lay head teacher there could be no guarantee that the sisters would be appointed the positions in the school; and one could envisage a situation in which members of the IBVM were excluded from teaching in the school in whose buildings they lived.
The situation in York would, of course, be very different if the new school were starting off in completely new buildings; but in the present circumstances it seems perfectly reasonable for the IBVM to retain control.
lain Robertson Director of Music The Bar Grammar School York
May I clarifyyour report of September 22 on my remarks on the reorganisation of York catholic schools?
Parents, clergy and teachers (through the Catholic TEachers' represented on the consultative cornmittee set up by the dioceses of Middlesbrough and Leeds to prepare for reorganisation.
This committee has not met for some considerable time, nor have its members seen or discussed the final proposals produced by the promoters of the scheme. There has been no public statement since November 1976. The Catholics of York had only a brief report of the proposals in the local newspaper last week.
It is, in my opinion, a great sadness that there has not been full and meaningful consultation in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. We are, after all, responsible people in partnership, fully committed to working for Catholic education in York.
P, J. Klely Deputy Head Teacher, St George s Secondary School, York