Parents of students at Nagle Catholic College in Geraldton are concerned for the future of their families when the College closes its boarding facilities at the end of 2015.
The school announced its decision in February citing a change in rural dynamics and substantial financial losses as the main determinants.
Parent of two current boarding students and a 2012 graduate, Allison Whybrow, said several aspects of the decision were disappointing.
The Whybrow family live in Badgingarra, about two hours south of Geraldton.
They told The Record they first received news of the closure of Nagle’s boarding houses from their children.
After a phone call from her eldest daughter in Perth, Mrs Whybrow received a text message from her youngest daughter that read: “Mum, they’re closing my home.”
“Half an hour after the news had made it to Facebook, we got an email from the College, which was really appalling,” Mrs Whybrow explained.
“The College and the Catholic Education Office (CEO) have acknowledged that it was not done well, but the damage and the hurt that that caused can’t be undone, it was just appalling, so that was a real shame.”
Mrs Whybrow said that at first she did not believe the decision was final: “Initially I thought, ‘It can’t possibly happen because nobody’s been told, there’s been no consultation,’” she said.
“Then I was angry, I was really, really angry at the damage done unnecessarily.”
It was a similar story for other parents too.
“Many of us received our first notification of the closure from very upset and confused children,” said Phil Logue, who has two children boarding at Nagle.
“We continue to fluctuate between anger and despair as to the future for our children.”
Nagle principal Declan Tanham has cited both a changing demographic and heavy financial losses as the main reasons for the closure of the school’s residential facilities.
Parents have told The Record they are unhappy they were not informed of the financial problems earlier.
“The Nagle Boarders Parents Association (NBPA) have a meeting every term … telling [Mr Tanham] our concerns,” Mrs Whybrow said.
“All he had to do was to say, ‘Numbers are dropping, get out there and promote [Nagle]’ … and we would have done. But at no point did he even ring an alarm bell.”
Mrs Whybrow said she believes the school had not done enough in its recruitment of future students.
“September last year was the first time that the College sent out two representatives to the Mingenew Expo, to promote boarding at Nagle,” she said.
“At every other rural show that you go to, all the Perth colleges have promotion stands to plug boarding at their facility. The school has never done that.”
There are approximately 83 students boarding at Nagle’s facilities in 2013. The highest in recent memory was 103 in 2008, according to the NBPA.
Mrs Whybrow said the school has stated that it needs 120 boarding students to make the residential accommodation financially viable.
In the wake of the decision, Mrs Whybrow said she was disappointed at the way the matter was handled.
“It still makes me really distressed, that for a Catholic school, they seem to have just flicked the Catholic ethos. The pastoral care I would state to be zero over this, it’s appalling,” she said.
The future for families such at the Whybrows and the Logues is uncertain.
Mr Logue said parents had been told the boarding facility would stay at the school’s two AGM’s in April and December of 2012.
As such, the school’s subsequent decision to close the boarding facility threw the family’s plans into disarray.
“We believe that we will be unable to find boarding accommodation in Geraldton in 2016 for our daughter,” Mr Logue said.
Even though his son, who is in year 10, should be accommodated until 2015, Mr Logue said the school has told parents that if numbers fall below a certain threshold the facility will close earlier.
“We have no way to plan for this beyond praying that it does not occur,” he said.
Mrs Whybrow said she desperately wants her children to stay at Nagle, but in reality the family needs an alternative plan.
“I [called] every boarding facility in Perth,” she said. “The most spaces that any of the schools had was two, but a lot of them had none, and a lot of them only had one, and they couldn’t guarantee it.
“Because of the year 7 intake and the recent closure of Swanleigh, they were all over capacity.
“So that was not very heartening, and I assume everyone who has been ringing has been getting the same response. So now what do we do?”
Even if students were to be given a place at a Perth boarding school, for many families it would not be financially viable.
“For parents from some of those far-reaching towns it would add $20,000 a year to their expenses, just simply in travel costs, to have their children in Perth, so its not a possibility for them,” Mrs Whybrow said.
The Pownall family live in Paraburdoo – some 1500 kilometres from Perth – a greater distance than that from Adelaide to Sydney.
With a daughter who has just started at the school in year 11 and a son in year 9, Ian Pownall said it would be impossible for him to send his children to board in Perth.
“If we ever send them to Perth, they’ve got no family close by and it’s an extra six hours driving for me which turns it into a 17-hour drive,” he said.
Mr Pownall said he was “shocked” to hear the College was closing its boarding house.
“We had no idea at all,” he said. “We were looking at buying a house in Geraldton in the future to settle down there … to me it’s the perfect location, its very popular, it always has been.”
“It’s a very emotive thing when it comes to my kids. Knowing that we put the hard effort of saving this money and grooming [them] for boarding school … to then find out a week after starting that it’s all changed, it was pretty gut-wrenching.”
The only other option for families is to have their children board at the nearby Geraldton Residential College.
Nagle College and the CEO have declared they are working with Geraldton Residential to facilitate the displaced students after 2015.
But Mrs Whybrow said this solution was “not practical.”
A spokesperson for Geraldton Residential College told The Record the school can accommodate 115 students but has “limited vacancies for male students”.
Mrs Whybrow said sending students to Geraldton Residential would contradict Nagle’s previous enrolment policy, which stated that any of its students requiring accommodation had to reside at the College’s boarding house.
“We chose Nagle for a reason … because we want our children educated and living within that pastoral care environment,” she said.
But it’s not only Nagle parents who recognise problems with the closure of the school’s boarding facilities.
At the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association state conference in March the pending closure was described as “a blow to rural education in the Mid West”.
Council member Liz Sudlow reported to the conference that Nagle’s decision “has the potential to further reduce the choice for families living in the northern half of the state.”
“The only boarding option for the Mid West will be the government run Residential College, which is currently almost full to capacity well before the 2015 Year 7 change,” she said.
Fellow council member Justine Reudavey questioned the school’s reasons for closing in her report on student accommodation.
“One of their reasons is falling numbers and they have said this is an Australia-wide issue,” she said.
“However, we have found in WA this is the opposite, boarding schools are filling and many now have waiting lists.”
Mrs Whybrow has written to the Bishop of Geraldton, Justin Bianchini, asking him to consider the option of the diocese running the boarding facilities.
She believes the school’s employees would support the option. “I know that should the Geraldton diocese want to look at the option of taking it on, they’d all stay, they love what they do,” she said.
For families, the school, and the CEO, facilitating such an option would provide the perfect solution, she said.
“How beautiful would it be, if the Geraldton diocese employed a business manager and just kept running it, and ran it as a separate business?” she asked.
“I’d love to see that option explored, and I really think that option has a huge backing from the Christian community as a whole and from the general community, and not just the Geraldton community.
“This reaches to the very corners of WA.”