A combined primary school in County Down is one of 10 schools that will no longer be able to build a new building as planned.
The headteacher of Millennium Integrated Primary School in Carryduff said there was widespread disappointment that there was no more funding for the new school.
Funding for the new building was part of the multi-million pound funding pledged in the 2015 Fresh Start agreement.
A Department for Education (DE) spokesperson said that £150m of that funding was now no longer available.
A spokesperson said the remaining Fresh Start funding would allow the nine new construction projects currently under contract to be completed and no construction work would be halted.
“There are a further 10 potential new build projects in planning and design for which Fresh Start funding from the UK Government will no longer be available,” they said.
The spokesperson added that these 10 projects will continue to progress through the planning process should future funding become available.
Education Minister Paul Given has also written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland asking for funding to be restored to support these projects.
DE has announced that £150m of funding from the Fresh Start Agreement has been included in the UK Government's executive accounts to fund wider public sector transformation.
Stormont's executive had previously agreed to allocate £688 million to advance public sector pay deals following widespread strikes across Northern Ireland in recent months.
Millennium Integrated Elementary School principal Barry Corrigan said the DE informed him on Thursday night that it was not in a position to continue with the new school project due to a lack of funding.
All 10 affected schools are integrated or shared education campuses.
Mr Corrigan told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra program that there were “a lot of long faces” among school officials when they were told the news.
He said a lot of preparatory work was already being done on the school premises for the start of construction work.
“The rug was pulled out from under us.”
“I have been involved in this project since I took office in 2017, so it has been seven years of continuous work and meetings with the Ministry of Education, which has been very fruitful.” he said.
He said that in collaboration with DE, a number of temporary classrooms were constructed in anticipation of the new building entering the construction phase.
The principal said that more than half of the school's students are currently being educated in these temporary classrooms and that they have now been told that no new school buildings will be built.
“The rug was pulled out from under us last night. We intend to move forward on many things, but it is inevitable that there will be widespread disappointment,” he said.
Mr Stormont and UK government ministers had just two days ago planted trees at the official opening of the co-educational campus in Limavady, County Londonderry.
It may therefore come as a surprise that 10 co-educational and integrated school construction projects are currently losing funding.
The £150m was expected to flow from the 2015 Fresh Start Agreement, one of many political deals over the years aimed at keeping Stormont afloat.
But as power-sharing returns from hiatus, the Department for Education says the UK government has repurposed the funding.
For some, it has left some wondering just how 'generous' the Treasury's £3.3bn funding for Stormont's rebuild really was.
For others, it may prove once again that there is no magic money tree when it comes to Northern Ireland's finances.
