Pupil numbers at Ireland's largest community school were overstated, but there was no evidence to suggest that this was "engineered" to secure additional funding from the Department of Education or for personal gain, a report has found.
The report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, notes that Department audits of Carndonagh community school failed to find "any impropriety or inappropriate personal gain on anyone's part, nor were there any specific allegations in that regard".
The facilitator, Mr Jack Marrinan, writes in the report that he is satisfied the vast majority of teachers at the school want "this controversial and morale-sapping chapter in the school's history to be closed".
Since 1994, the dispute has pitted a minority group of board members and teachers against the school principal, the former Dublin GAA captain, Mr Brian Mullins. The complex and festering row involved allegations of victimisation, bias, lack of transparency and overstatement of pupil numbers.
Mr Marrinan's package of recommendations, including the upgrading of three teachers and the provision of a mediation service to prevent future disputes getting out of hand, appears to have gone a long way to resolving the issues at stake.
The school, which has almost 1,700 pupils, is the result of an amalgamation in 1973 of three local schools. The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) is the largest teaching union, but 35 staff members are in the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI). Mr Mullins was appointed in 1991, ahead of a number of internal candidates.
In 1994 a TUI member on the board of management raised questions about how school funds were managed. Dissatisfied with the response, he brought the matter to his union and to the Department.
In 1995 Mr Mullins told the Department pupil numbers for the year 1994-95 had been mistakenly overstated by 35.
TUI branch officers claimed to the Department that pupil numbers had been overstated for four consecutive years from 1991. In 1993-94, they alleged that numbers were overstated by 115 pupils, and in 1994-95 by 71.
The allegations, if true, would mean the school got more resources from public funds than it was entitled to.
An examination by the Department of the books for 1994-95 revealed a discrepancy of only two pupils. However, a subsequent check in November 1996 identified a list of 85 pupils who enrolled for the first year of senior cycle in September 1993 but did not return for the second year in 1994. The official sought the school's opinion for this "exceptional drop-out rate".
The official concluded there was "no reliable way" of establishing the exact position regarding student numbers before 19941995. "The principal conceded he could not stand over some of the names on the school records for the period," the report notes.
Meanwhile, the Department's audit unit spent two weeks in the school and found "deep-rooted" problems. Some teachers appeared "totally disaffected and openly hostile" to the principal. Others were unwilling to perform duties appropriate to their rank.
According to Mr Marrinan, there was evidence of "undisguised hostility" towards the principal. Mr Mullins could be "direct of manner" and "may sometimes find it difficult to deal with a teacher who is perceived by him to challenge his authority or to challenge his approach to school management".
On the other side, Mr Marrinan said, the demand for information at board meetings was sometimes conducted aggressively. "An undercurrent of innuendo" must have had a bearing on attitudes.
Last January the TUI served strike notice, claiming practical subjects were being downgraded at the school and alleging that union officers were suffering "serious harassment and victimisation".
The union agreed to defer the strike after Mr Marrinan was appointed. Following an intensive period of consultation, it was agreed to upgrade three teachers who were in dispute with the school. The union then withdrew its strike threat.
Mr Marrinan says the "deep rift" between Mr Mullins and some teachers is likely to take some time to get over. The original attempts by some board members to obtain information had been badly handled. Information to which they had a right was not given to them promptly.
However, he writes, the majority of teachers "look forward to the dawning of a new day in which the controversies that have bedevilled their workplace for the past several years are at an end".