AS a parent and former governor of Richmond School, I have long had concerns about the management of this institution.

Although I resigned as a governor some time ago, I believe that concerns about the school’s budgetary and academic problems are still widely shared.

Press releases by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) have down played the tensions within the school and its failure to meet it’s target of becoming an “outstanding” school.

Indeed, I believe that NYCC and the school management may be planning to ditch the governors and push the school towards academy status, thereby releasing NYCC from its responsibility for this school and removing any democratic control by local residents.

If it happens, this would be a shameful abrogation of the council’s responsibility and the sacrifice of a 700 year old institution to private enterprise.

We should make sure that the appointment of an “interim executive board” is only a temporary measure and parents are allowed to elect a new governing body as soon as possible. They also deserve an answer to why the whole governing body had so little faith in the management of the school that they had to resign?

Leslie Rowe, Richmond.