MORE than 130 students will need to find a new school to enrol in for 2011 after the establishment of the new Austin Cove Baptist College was rejected by the education department.
Most of the students will move into public education with waiting lists for all private schools in the area at a three-year minimum.
Education minister Elizabeth Constable advised the school organisation in a letter of her final decision on January 12, saying the new school was unnecessary and would have a negative impact on surrounding schools.
“The proposed school will have a significant detrimental effect on student numbers and in turn on the staffing, funding and programs of a number of existing government schools in the catchment area,” she said.
“While substantial growth is forecast for the shire of Murray in future, provision of an additional K-12 school at the present time would result in under-utilisation of the student places available at a number of existing schools.”
However would-be principal of Austin Cove Baptist College Orlando Dos Santos insisted the minister had been misinformed.
“There is no way the school could have a negative impact on the region,” he said.
“We have such incredible growth here that we need a school to cope with the demand.”
Already Austin Cove Baptist College has 130 students enrolled in the school since they began advertising it five months ago, with a year remaining until its scheduled opening.
Mandurah Baptist College, now with 620 enrolled students and a waiting list of 500, started with just 68 students in its first year.
“Already we’ve had such an amazing response because parents don’t have anywhere else to send their children,” Mr Dos Santos said.
“Students from Pinjarra, Waroona, Mandurah and even people from Perth are moving down here to send their children to school at Austin Cove.”
While the Murray shire is known as one of the fastest growing regions in the state with one third of the state’s total land lots currently being sold in the area, there is just one private primary school available to children in the area and no private high schools.
Since learning of the school’s rejection many parents reacted strongly to the prospect of being forced to enrol their children in public schools in the area.
“I don’t believe the public school system encourages children to be respectful and it doesn’t create a correct environment for students,” Mariners Cove resident Karike Martin said.
She, along with many other student parents listed for the new Austin Cove school, said the family would be inclined to move away from Mandurah if the school is not opened.
Riverside Gardens parent Rebecca Arnold sent Murray-Wellington MLA Murray Cowper a letter outlining her frustration with the education department.
Having tried to enrol her children into private education for the past three years, the mother believes the reasoning behind the rejection was baseless.
“Take a walk down the streets of Mandurah and talk with the community it is common knowledge that the waiting lists for private education are excessive,” she said.
“I cannot believe how the minister has come to this decision and most importantly where the minister’s information and statistics have come from.”
Mr Cowper said he “didn’t feel comfortable” with the minister’s decision either.
He will be meeting up with Dr Constable in two weeks’ time to discuss the situation.
Dr Constable said while choice of school is an important consideration, it needed to be weighed against the consequences.
“In making this decision based on the information available, I was required by legislation to weigh choice against the possible detrimental effect on other schools for which there has already been a significant investment,” she said.
“The application was refused on the basis of the significant number of students who would be drawn from existing schools in the region.”
Principal Dos Santos is appealing the decision.
In the meantime he is gathering testimonials from student parents to give weight to the argument.
“If we aren’t successful in the appeal we’ll just appeal again and keep on appealing until we get it,” he said.
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