EDUCATION bosses will meet officials from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to discuss a deal over school funding.

Darlington Borough Council is angry that it could be one of the last local education authorities in the country to get vital funds to rejuvenate its secondary schools.

The council wants to discuss the Building Schools for the Future scheme, which has promised to transform every high school in the country.

Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside will benefit within the next couple of years.

However, indications show Darlington will not get any money until at least 2011. The meeting will take place in Darlington within eight weeks.

Paul Campbell, assistant director of client services in the education department, said education authorities with low standards and high social deprivation were prioritised by the DfES, which explained why Darlington had missed out.

He said: "We see nearby authorities getting money because they are not doing well, it is almost an incentive not to do well. All our secondary schools have significant work which needs to be done. We just want the best."

The authority said every school in Darlington will be out of debt by March.

This is a landmark for schools and education officers, who have struggled to get back into credit to meet Government requirements.

Three years ago, six schools in the borough had run into the red, because of low levels of funding from the Government and increasing cash pressures.

The authority said it was a constant problem for Darlington, which has one of the lowest levels of funding per pupil in the country.

Extra money was pumped into the schools which had fallen into deficit, and at the start of the new financial year in April, every school in the town will have a balance of zero or above.

The finance team at Darlington has been shortlisted for finance team of the year in the Government "Oscars", the Local Government Chronicle awards. The team will find out in March if it has won.