"VERY under-handed and deceitful..." is how Harrington Community Action secretary Joan Hall described the process of closing Crowdy Head Public School to the NSW Select Committee on the Closure of Public Schools.
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Last week Ms Hall and Mrs Margaret Ward of Harrington spoke with eight NSW Upper House politicians on the committee in a conference call about the content of their written submissions to the inquiry.
This week the committee made public a "partially confidential" version of Ms Hall's submission. The committee had previously made public Mrs Ward's submission and an extract of that submission appeared in the August 21-22 edition of the Manning River Times.
This week Ms Hall described the conference call with the committee "as a positive experience."
"I didn't feel uncomfortable or embarrassed and I felt I could say what needed to be said about the issues that impacted our community," Ms Hall said.
"We discussed the content of my submission and I was able to share how the decisions were made that impacted the students, parents and our community.
"I know it won't help our situation but our experience may help the committee understand how the department does things."
Following is an extract of Ms Hall's submission. The full "partially confidential" version of the submission can be found on the NSW Parliament website:
o For over two years the closure of the school hung over the heads of all staff, students and parents students I believe were the main ones effected.
It appeared that the principal of the school was given a hard time by the department and in the end by the end of the first or second term he went on sick leave and then retired - casual teachers were brought in which had an effect on the students once again. One casual teacher was pregnant and had the baby somewhere between the third and fourth term - once again another teacher change to run the school and an adverse effect on the students.
o Believe the enforcing of the Enrolment of Students in Government Schools Policy was interpreted to suit the education department and the need to close the school ... this policy had not been revised since August 1997 and is written in such a way that suits city schools for allocation of students more so than regional schools. There was one student whose grandparents requested that their grandson be allowed to go to Crowdy for the last three terms of 2014 as he was being bullied at Harrington school. The boy had just lost his father and his grandparents were raising him - he was to go to high school in 2015. The director of the area would not allow the boy to attend Crowdy School.
o Four members of the action group met with the director on the 11 February 2014 at Crowdy School where it was said that the principal had told two children residing in Crowdy that they should go to another school as Crowdy would be closing in two years. This is just one of the reasons that the student numbers decreased.
o All the correspondence written to members of Parliament including our local member and staff of the education department just gave the action group the run around and passed the correspondence from one section / person to another ... the closure of Crowdy Head School was very under handed and deceitful.
o There was no official announcement made that the school was actually closing to well into the fourth term. There was not an official function held inviting old students, teachers, parents and members of the community - believe there was a morning tea for whoever on the last day or there about ... it was all very secretive. There had been a school at Crowdy Head for over 100 years does that not mean something?
o Cannot understand why the education department built the new federally-funded class room, constructed a fully equipped kitchen, students planted vegetable gardens and grew their own vegetables and then learned how to cook them. A staff member from Crowdy School was sent to a school in Sydney to find out about cooking classes and the running of a kitchen operated in a school, and the rules and regulations - all this when the education department said that Crowdy School would be closing at the end of the school year in 2014."