85 STAFF AXED IN COLLEGE CLOSURE
MORE than 70 per cent of the staff employed at Shalom Christian College will lose their jobs when the school shuts its boarding and secondary education.
The Bulletin revealed on November 20 the Uniting Church- owned facility would only offer primary education in 2018, ceasing its role as an indigenous boarding school.
The decision means 85 staff will lose their jobs.
Teachers will rally at the school this morning with family and friends to express their disappointment in the Uniting Church’s decision.
Uniting Church moderator, Reverend David Baker, said 38 staff would be employed at the school in 2018 to work with the 112 primary students enrolled across six classes.
The Uniting Church initially said the closure decision was made to protect the welfare of students, but a confidential document obtained by the Bulletin suggested Shalom Christian College was harming the church’s reputation.
Mary Horton has been a secondary teacher at Shalom for almost 10 years and said the students’ welfare was not in danger.
The school was scrutinised at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with specific focus surrounding an alleged gang rape of a 14- yearold girl in 2006.
However, Mrs Horton said she knew of no sexual offences at the school in her time as a teacher.
“I’ve been here for nearly 10 years … the students’ welfare was not in danger,” Mrs Horton said. “Nothing has happened of that nature ( sexual abuse) at all while I’ve taught here.”
Mrs Horton said she was “gutted” when she read about the closure in the Bulletin.
She said the church tearing apart a school brilliant potential.
“We are all disappointed that our important school for indigenous students is lost and I don’t think we are going to have another one like it,” she said. “We are more than a was with school, we are a family … the family is severed.”
Independent Teachers Union assistant branch secretary Brad Hayes said the church had also rejected almost all employee proposals for additional assistance.
“This included a refusal to provide any additional severance pay, a refusal to guarantee the payment of long service for all staff or to even help with relocation expenses for members who have to move in order to get a new job,” Mr Hayes said.
“The employer has even refused to arrange for a financial consultant to meet with employees to provide valuable financial advice.”
Mr Baker said all negotiations with staff were in accord- ance with Shalom’s enterprise agreement.
He said the Uniting Church was working with the Education Department and private school sector to support the 127 secondary students who would need to move schools.
An Education Department spokesman said the department had already begun working to relocate staff.