By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE Pottsville High School is back in the news again this week, but seems no closer to becoming a reality.
NSW Member for Tweed Geoff Provest said this week it certainly would happen one day although after consulting with the regional director of education and principals of Kingscliff High and Pottsville Public and those school’s P&Cs he believed it would be detrimental for it to happen in the immediate future.
Mr Provest said enrolments were currently falling and opening a school at Pottsville would take 300-400 students out of Kingscliff High and affect the number and variety of subjects that would be offered to HSC students on the Tweed Coast.
He said currently as a larger school, Kingscliff had 47 subjects on offer but that could drop to 35 if their numbers dropped.
However Shadow Special Minister of State, Walt Secord this week accused the O’Farrell Government of blocking the release of North Coast school enrolment figures – to avoid building the new high school and breaking an election promise.
In response to his Freedom of Information (FOI) request on the enrolment figures, Mr Secord was asked to “reduce the scope” of his application with the Department of Education, who claimed it would take 92.5 hours at $30 an hour to process the application – which totals $2775.
Mr Secord lodged the FOI to gather information about the push for a high school at Pottsville in the Tweed Shire on the far North Coast.
However, a leaked three-page internal document to Tweed Shire Council dated 24 December, 2012 shows the information was already contained in a single document.
“Tweed MP, Geoff Provest promised a new high school for the community and is now hiding behind the Education Department who are trying to block information from being released,” Mr Secord said.
“The data does not cost $2775 to locate. This is simply another attempt by the O’Farrell Government to block the release of information and to avoid honouring its election promise.
“The data exists and is easily accessible as the department has already provided data in 2011 on the subject.
“The fast-growing Tweed Coast from Fingal to Pottsville is currently serviced by one high school at Kingscliff and students are travelling great distances just to get to classes.”
Mr Provest said he too had come in contact with the FOI costs which he said had been brought in by the previous Labor Government.
“It was Mr Secord’s party that instigated these fees but we have toned them down and made them more transparent,” he said.
Mr Provest said there was going to be a high school in Pottsville in the future as the area continued to grow.
He said he would like to see an option to maybe expand the current primary school to include up to Year 8 explored. He said the option had been suggested by the school community and warranted investigation.
