ANGRY Caroline Springs residents are concerned their children will be told to change schools next year.
Several parents of students at the Brookside campus of Caroline Springs College expressed their anger to Star over letters sent to them suggesting a relocation.
The letters stated that a number of students from prep to grade four, who live north of Rockbank Middle Road, will be transferred next year to the college’s Creekside campus, because of a shortage of space at Brookside.
Previous letters asked parents to specify their preference for relocation.
However, as the end of the school term approaches, some parents living north of Rockbank Middle Road said they hadn’t received letters.
Brookside campus principal Angelica Ireland said the multistep relocation process will result in approximately 100 students in prep to grade four being moved from the Brookside facility to the campus at Creekside. Ms Ireland said when asked by letter to state their preference for relocation, parents didn’t tick the box saying “we didn’t want to move”.
“They ticked the box stating their preference and they received a letter saying we can’t meet everybody’s first preference, because we are actually losing quite a number of rooms at Brookside.”
She said the Brookside campus was “overflowing”, with an increasing number of students. The school, to meet its needs during the past year, had been using portable classrooms delivered by the Department of Education and Training.
The 10 portables were likely to be taken away next year as the Creekside campus, which had been operating for the year with students in grades 5 to 10, opened its doors to students from prep to grade four.
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Ms Ireland said the school was undergoing negotiations to keep the portable classrooms at the Brookside campus.
“If we accommodate all the students that we currently have, we’re going to have very large classes here and we’re going to have empty rooms at Creekside, which is not sensible,” Ms Ireland said.
Jill, who did not want her surname published, lives closer to the Brookside campus, where her two children attend prep and grade four.
When asked by letter to state her preference earlier in the year, Jill said she preferred for her children to remain at the Brookside campus.
“We’d have to drive to go to this new campus and it’s just ridiculous,” Jill said.
“We’ve got a school across the road, which we can walk in two minutes to.
“That’s the whole point why we moved here in the first place.”
She said it didn’t make sense that only some parents north of Rockbank Middle Rd received letters while others did not.
“It’s discriminating – they obviously haven’t got a real policy going,” she said.
Ms Ireland said Rockbank Middle Rd was also used as a dividing line last year, when middleyears students were relocated to Creekside from the Brookside campus.
“We’ve asked parents to let us know what their concerns are, they’re still doing the consultation process this week, and we need to have a look at each family’s concerns on its merits,” Ms Ireland said.
Kim, who lives in the Grove in Caroline Springs and did not want her surname printed, said she has received four letters in the past six months asking her preference for the campus she would like her son to attend.
“It’s the way they’ve done it that I’m disappointed,” Kim said.
“If they had said it from the start that there was going to be a chance that children will be relocated to Creekside because of the area they are in, it would have been easier.
“Each time I have sent the letter back saying I request Brookside, then they send the letter saying they’re moving him,” she said.
Kim said it was unreasonable to send letters only to Caroline Springs residents when students from other areas also attend the school.
“It’s dividing the school and it’s dividing the community,” Kim said.
“Attacking one area at a time is wrong.
“They’re not looking after the people of Caroline Springs – they’re looking after the people of Rockbank and the people of Melton, Sunbury and Deer Park.”
Gary, who did not want his surname printed, is father to two Brookside campus students who attend prep and grade four.
He said he did not receive a letter and only last week heard about the changes from other parents.
“We should have got the letter that everybody else seems to have got,” Gary said.
“They could have done it a bit better, but I completely understand why they had to do what they’ve done, but the process in which they’ve gone about it could have been more thorough.”
Ms Ireland said the school would not force parents to move their children to the Creekside campus, but if the portable classrooms are removed, the school would be faced with overflowing numbers of students.
“We don’t want to work against any parent, but at the end of this we want it to work for everybody,” she said.
Parents who have concerns about the changes are encouraged to write a letter to the school, Ms Ireland said.
