Member for Lismore and Tweed City Council remain strongly opposed to "NSW Government's ill-advised proposal to close four Murwillumbah public schools and replace them with a mega campus"

It seems that less than ten months out from a state election the NSW Perrottet Government is still not listening to local communities in the Northern Rivers region.....

NSW Labor Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin, media release, 9 June 2022:

Janelle Saffin MP has reaffirmed her 'rock solid' opposition to the NSW Government's ill-advised proposal to close four Murwillumbah public schools and replace them with a mega campus. Tweed Shire Council is also opposed.

STATE Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin remains ‘rock solid’ in her support to maintain Murwilumbah’s four public schools.

The NSW Government’s plans to close these schools and replace them with a mega school campus is nothing but a cost-cutting exercise, Ms Saffin says.

“They (the Government) have not demonstrated any educational benefit to students and to boot will sack 20 teachers and four support staff.”

Ms Saffin further reaffirmed NSW Labor’s commitment to keep Murwillumbah East Public School, Wollumbin High School, Murwillumbah Public School and Murwillumbah High School open for the community into the future.

Ms Saffin said Tweed Shire Council’s damning submission and formal objection to the Murwillumbah Education Campus development application, combined with the school communities’ concerns, should be enough for NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell to scrap the Government’s ill-advised plan and heavily invest in existing schools instead.

“My position has not changed; if anything, my opposition to this proposal — which is half-baked at best, silly at worst, does not contain a performing arts centre as touted from the original announcement all the way along, is vague on assessing flood impacts and is generally lacking in detail — has solidified,” Ms Saffin said.

“Some issues identified by Council include inadequate playing fields; indoor halls too small to be used as shared community spaces; a lack of shading for students; a 90-space shortfall in car parking spaces (which would put serious pressure on surrounding streets); and an incomplete bushfire management plan.

“It all adds up to a half-baked plan which sells the local community short, prompting Tweed Mayor Cr Chris Cherry to say the State Government should be a ‘model applicant, but is flouting all of our requirements and at this stage is being anything but’.”

Ms Saffin noted NSW Teachers Federation Deputy President Henry Rajendra’s call for the NSW Government to immediately halt its merger plan, and engage with local parents and teachers to permanently protect the staffing entitlement for existing schools.

In Education Quarterly Online, Mr Rajendra said: “The issues raised by Council are in addition to the staffing cuts that will result when the schools are amalgamated. Primary school provision will, at a minimum, lose a classroom teacher, up to two assistant principal positions, a principal position and a reduction in teacher-librarian staffing.

“The situation is far worse for high school staffing. It is predicted that at least 16 positions – 20 per cent of the teaching staffing entitlement – will be cut, including classroom, head teacher, teacher-librarian, careers adviser and principal positions,” Mr Rajendra said.

Second Term of the 2022 academic year, education still disrupted for students in flood damaged Northern Rivers schools

 

Across the Northern Rivers region this week Term 2 began for primary and high school students.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2022:

Flood-hit schools face years of disruption

...it will be anything but business as usual for many students in the Northern Rivers. The devastating floods that hit the region in February caused mass disruptions and meant thousands of children missed weeks of in-person learning. For many students, school won’t return to normal for months, or even years, after the floods forced classes off-site for the foreseeable future.

Nine public schools in the region were significantly damaged and earmarked for rebuilding along with several Catholic and independent schools, and many more were damaged. At Lismore’s Trinity Catholic College, which has almost 1000 students, all but eight rooms were inundated by floodwaters and the damage bill is expected to top tens of millions of dollars.

Universities and community groups have opened their doors to displaced students.

At Lismore’s Trinity Catholic College, which has almost 1000 students, every room but eight was inundated with water and the damage bill was expected to top tens of millions of dollars.

Trinity Catholic College in Lismore was almost completely destroyed by floods.

Read the full article here.

650 South Grafton Primary School children along with their teachers and support staff enter their fifth day of self-isolation as COVID-19 infection grows in the school community

"all will be given to those who strive"
approximate translation 

At 9am on Tuesday 5 October 2021 around 650 children from Kindergarten to Year 6, along with at least 31 teachers and numerous support staff, commenced Term 4 at the 154 year old split campus South Grafton Public School, under Level 3 (regional schools) COVID-19 settings.

At around 11am that same day, almost casually, NSW Health announced that 4 cases of locally acquired COVID-19 infection had been discovered in the Clarence Valley local government area. Thus ending its resident population's community transmission free status which began on or about 29 March 2020.

By Saturday 9 October the primary school was abruptly closed for contact tracing and cleaning when it was discovered that one member of the school community had tested positive for COVID-19.

Based on NSW Health advice, all staff and students were told to self-isolate until further notice and to be tested if they developed symptoms of viral infection.

On Monday 11 October when the NSW Government opened up the state in Stage 1 of its policy of easing COVID-19 public health order restrictions and allowing the population increased mobility, South Grafton Public School staff and the parents of those 650 students waited to get the all clear to return to school.

It was also on that Monday that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 community transmission in the Clarence Valley – specifically in Grafton postcode 2460 – had reached 14 cases over the space of the 6 days since the Delta Variant Outbreak finally reached the local government area.

On Tuesday 12 October 2021 the primary school administration was informed that additional COVID-19 cases had been confirmed within the school community and further contact tracing and cleaning needed to be undertaken, so the school remained closed.

Regretfully, to be continued......