REBEL governors who have resigned from Kingsway High's governing body have launched a blistering attack on the management structure of the school which is to close in 2006.

Local education authority-appointed governors Louis Mitchell, David Mead, John Butler and co-opted member Brian Blundell spoke out for the first time this week after collectively handing in their resignations after years of service to the Newton school.

The 'gang of four' resigned last week after objecting to the appointment of Kingsway deputy head Karen Dunn to the post of acting head.

Ms Dunn, who has worked at the school for 10 years, has taken over the reins from Rudheath High head Mike Hayhurst and will hold the position until December when governors hope to appoint a permanent head.

However, the foursome preferred the appointment of an 'outside' academic who, they say, would have been able to look at Kingsway's problems afresh.

Ms Dunn's appointment was the final straw for the governors who spoke to The Chronicle about their life inside the Newton, Chester school at Hoole Hall Hotel, Chester, on Tuesday.

All four are passionate about Kingsway and want to see it saved from the axe but say more should have been done to prevent it from being put in the firing line.

During the two-hour meeting, the four told how they were stunned when they first learned of Kingsway's deficit and how they were forced to look on as Kingsway failed to market itself properly.

They also told how a different accounting system between Cheshire's LEA and former head, Dr David Gower, led to a financial discrepancy which today stands at £270,000.

They also told how their views were often ignored by the governing body which they say contains too many parental members who treat Kingsway's financial crisis as a 'side show' to their children's own education.

They also said a deliberate election campaign was launched last year to prevent David Mead and John Butler securing the posts of chair and vice chair of governors on Kingsway's governing body.

The foursome's departure and comments come at a critical time for Kingsway when parents, campaigners and governors are calling on Cheshire education chiefs to save the school.

The four also have a wealth of experience; Louis Mitchell chaired the governing body's finance committee, David Mead was once chairman of governors and John Butler was a former vice-chairman of governors.

In their joint statement this week, the four said: 'The cause of Kingsway's current crisis is the falling school roles leading to a budget deficit. How has this come about when neighbouring schools in the area are full to overflowing? It is a result of parental choice.

'While the good education provision at the school is recognised by parents of children at the school, the fact has to be faced that parents of most children in the area strongly prefer to send their children elsewhere.

'There are a number of possible reasons for this, but one could be the apparent mediocre GCSE results appearing in the league tables. Not everyone will realise that this is due to Kingsway's admirable provision for a high proportion of students with special needs.

'How did the school react to falling numbers? Insufficient effective action was taken to implement the governors' wish for better publicity.

'The attempts to make the school more popular failed. The crisis was deepened by management's failure to carry out proper financial control and to give accurate financial information to governors.

'What did governors do about this? During 2002/03 we had various discussions with the LEA to discuss these problems.

'This led the LEA to carry out the financial audit at the end of 2003.

'Dr Gower resigned after the audit was complete. Why? What did the audit report say?'

Only two governors have been given copies of the full confidential report (David Mead, the previous chair, and current chair Kath Lloyd).

The departing governors would like to see the audit report made public so everyone is aware of Kingsway's problems and what caused them.

Speaking this week, the foursome said they could no longer hold themselves responsible for decisions made by Kingsway's management structure.

Mr Blundell added: 'The school's financial situation is desperately grave. I don't want to take responsibility for it.'

The foursome say they were always told Kingsway had a satisfactory bank balance but were shocked when they learned of its huge deficit.

After the size of the deficit was revealed, the foursome were shocked at the governing body's response to the situation which included shedding the school's assistant caretaker and some office staff.