GOVERNORS at a crisis-hit East Lancashire school were dealt another blow today after if was revealed that county education bosses are set to keep control of the purse strings for another year.

Councillors are being asked to back a move to allow Lancashire Education Authority to manage the budget of Mansfield High, Brierfield, until April 2000 at the earliest rather than it pass back to the governors.

The 1,200-pupil school is one of the largest in Lancashire and has one of the biggest annual budgets of about £2.5million.

Control of its finances passed from the governors to the education authority last July following the launch of a police investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement.

These included allegations of improper sponsorship arrangements when the school successfully applied for technology college status, faulty tendering procedures and VAT irregularities.

The police investigation is continuing and head Ernie Pickup and business manager Peter Cowell-Smith are still away from the school pending the outcome of the inquiry.

The governors appealed to Education Secretary David Blunkett against the move by the education authority to take control of the finances but later withdrew the appeal.

The education authority is working closely with Mansfield to bring it out of the special measures imposed after the Government called in a team of inspectors last summer who found problems with the management of the school.

Peter Dixon, currently head of Primet High, Colne, will take over as associate head from Easter to lead Mansfield out of special measures. Acting head Glynne Ward will go back to her post as head of Ribblesdale High, Clitheroe.

A report to the county council's schools and general purposes sub-committee, which meets on Tuesday, will ask councillors to recommend the council's education and cultural services committee to agree to continue suspension of delegation at Mansfield in 1999/2000.

The suspension has to be reviewed before the start of each financial year in April.

The report said the school had been asked to comment and any views would be taken into account at the meeting.

Deputy chairman of governors Pauline Allen said the general feeling among governors was that after initial concerns the best course was for the education authority to keep control of finances until the school was out of special measures.

"We have had a lot of support from the education authority," she added.

Meanwhile the delegation of suspension applied to Cribden House Special School, Rawtenstall, has been lifted after it came out of special measures following a successful re-inspection by Ofsted last July.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.