A SCHOOL split over two sites is to be handed £342,000 extra funding to help balance its budget.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet has approved proposals to retrospectively hand Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni £228,000 to cover shortfalls in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years, as well as an extra £114,000 for 2020-21.

The retrospective funding will help overturn a deficit of £107,000, which was reported at the end of the 2018-19 financial year.

A report presented to the cabinet says that the significant overspend is mainly down to staffing.

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The report says: “Additional costs have been incurred as a consequence of the split site arrangement which link directly to leadership and managerial responsibilities (outside of the formula funding driven by pupil numbers).”

Since September 2017, years seven to 11 have been taught on two sites, which are seven miles apart.

Gelli Haf in Blackwood and Y Gwyndy in Caerphilly are both part of Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni and each have a separate catchment area and feeder schools.

The proposal to provide retrospective funding was put forward by Cllr Brenda Miles in the education for life scrutiny committee in July.

The motion was backed unanimously by the committee, which also backed a report to be presented to cabinet for a decision on the funding methodology and the sources of funding for the split site.

The retrospective funding of £228,000 is expected to come out of the education and corporate services fund where there is a projected underspend of £1.5 million.

Funding arrangements going forward for the £114,000 could be generated from the Individual Schools Budget.

However, the budget proposals for 2020-21 include a £2 million reduction in such funds.

Alternatively, it could be funded as a growth item, subject to the authority’s budget proposals for 2020-2021.