Catholic families wanting to enrol their daughters at St Brigid’s College in Lesmurdie next year may be unable to after the school’s plan to accommodate more students fell through.
The school has experienced a surge in the number of boarding students recently, forcing it to examine other ways of accommodating them.
Principal Amelia Toffoli told The Record the school had presented a proposal to the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes parish to use its parish centre to board 16 students.
But parish priest Fr Ken Asaba said, after holding a forum to discuss the proposal, the parish decided not to go ahead with the plan.
“We had around 60 parishioners to make the decision and to get a feeling of the parish for the proposal,” he said. “Unfortunately the conclusion was that the people were opposed to the idea.”
Speaking to The Record before the decision had been made, Ms Toffoli said the plan to use the parish centre was the school’s best option.
“If we can’t get that option, the possibility is that we may need to refuse Catholic families boarding,” she said.
“We have land, but we’re not in a position to build further accommodation. We’ve refurbished everything that we’ve got on site for boarding, so it’s either that or Catholic families may miss out.”
In the last decade the number of boarders at St Brigid’s has increased from 138 to 172.
The current number already surpasses the all-girls school’s accommodation limit, and Ms Toffoli said she was expecting even more boarding students in the next two years.
“In 2015 the State is moving its Year 7 students from primary to secondary campuses, and we’re anticipating, with our farming families, that they may be forced, if they want their children in a Catholic school, to send us their daughters,” Ms Toffoli said.
“In addition to that… Nagle has shut down it’s boarding, and we’ve received already five expressions of interest from those families, so we’re anticipating further increases.
“We saw an opportunity in the old parish centre that had been used very little, that needed refurbishment. We thought we could help the parish do that, and we proposed what we proposed.”
Fr Ken said it was unfortunate the parish decided not to accept the proposal. “I personally thought it was a brilliant idea,” he said.
“It was going to be perfect, using this facility which is actually underused. Unfortunately the parish is not ready to engage with this sort of situation yet.”