Parents say their children are being turned away from Longforgan Primary School while new classrooms sit empty.
The Perthshire school reopened after a £6 million refurbishment in 2021.
The council investment was supposed to increase pupil capacity and provide 20 additional nursery places.
But the education authority has turned down 10 placing requests for Longforgan Primary next term, despite having plenty of space.
Parents think the aim is to save money by operating composite classes.
And they claim Longforgan pupils will have three fewer teachers next year than they had when it re-opened.
Perth and Kinross Council has defended its placement policy.
It says staffing levels are set according to the number of pupils in a school’s catchment area, not the number of classrooms.
And policy prevents it from placing extra teachers in schools to accommodate pupils from elsewhere.
Mum faces pulling son out of Longforgan school to keep brothers together
Danielle Morgan is one of the affected parents.
The Rait mum has one son in P3 at Longforgan and another in the school nursery.
But she’s been told her younger son won’t get a place in P1 after the summer holidays.
She’s been advised to start him five miles away at Abernyte Primary instead.
That means she’ll have to decide between pulling her oldest out of Longforgan, where he’s thriving, or sending the two boys to different schools.
And to complicate matters further, her third son will also be starting nursery soon, and there’s not one at Abernyte, which has previously been at risk of closure.
“We could understand it if there wasn’t room at Longforgan,” she said.
“But they spent £6m five years ago.
“Since then we’ve lost two teachers. If this goes ahead that’ll be a third, and we’ll have two empty classrooms in August.”
Parents’ choice at heart of Longforgan school concerns
The last pupil census revealed Longforgan Primary had 91 pupils, with capacity for 144.
Carse of Gowrie Labour councillor Alasdair Bailey says he shares parents’ frustrations.
He said: “Given that Perth and Kinross Council invested £6m to substantially refurbish and extend the school in 2021 I find it surprising that teacher numbers are being reduced.
“This unfortunately has the effect of meaning that placing requests are being turned down.”
Mr Bailey added: “I acknowledge that Perth and Kinross Council is acting within the rules for such requests.
“But the principle of parent choice is an important one, which should receive more respect than this.”
Council defends placing policy
Perth and Kinross Council told The Courier parents are advised in writing that placing one child in a school outside their catchment area doesn’t guarantee a future place for siblings.
And it says its staffing budget is set in a way that ensures there’s sufficient space in each school to accommodate its catchment pupils.
In the case of Longforgan, two of the rejected youngsters stay elsewhere in Perthshire and the other eight are across the council border in Dundee.
“We do not staff schools based on the number of available classrooms,” said a spokesperson.
Nor does the council allocate teachers to schools specifically to accommodate extra pupils from elsewhere.
They added: “This would require additional staffing provision over and above the standard for the school roll, and as a result is a legal ground for the refusal of a placing request.”
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