A PETITION signed by more than 1,300 people trying to save Sandown Bay Academy has been handed to the boss of the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET).
The petition was delivered to the trust's chief executive, Julian Drinkall, by the Isle of Wight Council's executive member for education, Cllr Chris Whitehouse during a meeting between the council and AET in Newport.
Cllr Whitehouse said: "I handed the petition personally to Julian Drinkall and told him that there were an additional 1,300 online signatures. We left Mr Drinkall and his seven senior colleagues from AET in absolutely no doubt about the passionate opposition of Sandown Bay Academy's parents, students and staff and local community."
AET met with members of the Isle of Wight Council yesterday (Thursday) and later issued a statement saying that the school was not 'viable' due to student numbers almost halving in five years and a lack of funds.
Cllr Dave Stewart, leader of the Isle of Wight Council who chaired the meeting said: "We had a very frank and robust discussion about AET's plans, the reasons for them and why there has been a lack of openness and transparency in the funding of the school, the challenges it faces and AET's plans for the future.
"We remain determined to do all we can to deliver secondary education in Sandown and have tasked officers with working up a short paper setting up the different options available to us and there are such options, to ensure the children of Sandown have their own local secondary school."
Cllr Chris Quirk, former chair of governors at Sandown Bay Academy, added: "As a governing body, we were kept totally in the dark about these plans being secretly developed by AET. I was truly shocked when the news emerged a week ago and remain absolutely committed to securing the future of the school."