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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-29 Daily Xml
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Motions

Springbank Secondary College

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. T.A. Franks:

That this council—

1. Notes that in 2016 the then Pasadena High School resolved by a voluntary vote process to remain open and not merge;

2. Applauds the rebranded Springbank Secondary College for its ambition to be a progressive forward-thinking school with a focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics), with a disability unit, basketball academy and trade training centre that provide students with a wide range of specialised opportunities in a school that is small by design;

3. Condemns both the withholding of an allocated $10 million and the recent announcement of a review process that both serve to undermine public confidence in the school's future;

4. Acknowledges that this review has no stated purpose, was announced to media before it was communicated to the school community and that has placed undue anxiety and stress on current and prospective Springbank Secondary College students, families and staff; and

5. Calls on the Marshall Liberal government to abandon this review into the Springbank Secondary College and release the $10 million to sustain and support the school and its community to thrive.

(Continued from 8 April 2020.)

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (17:20): I rise to confirm that Labor supports this motion in its entirety. This government has shown nothing but contempt for the parents, staff and especially the students of the inner southern suburbs since coming to office. It is important that we look back and reflect on how each party has approached and supported this community. As we all know, history will shed light on why today's decisions are being made.

Springbank Secondary College, formerly Pasadena High School, has a proud history of serving the community since 1964, when it was opened as Daws Road High School, a proud public school community. In 2016, the school governing council decided to undertake a voluntary amalgamation process, a process enshrined in legislation to stop governments forcibly closing public schools left, right and centre as was seen when the Liberal Party was last in government, and overseen by a certain minister for education, who sits in this chamber today—the Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas.

After going through this process and assessing all the options, a vote was held in 2016, and the parents of Pasadena High School voted to keep the public school open, deciding to seek the assistance of the Labor government of the day to help the school and its community grow and prosper. In response to this decision—one owned by the community—the then Labor government set about investing in the school. It did this in a number of ways: resources and essential support were provided to build links with other educational institutions, such as the Australian Science and Mathematics School and Flinders University.

A name change and community promotion campaign commenced as a vision for the future began to emerge, all owned by its students and the community the school served. The following year the then Labor government provided additional support, ensuring the school's long-term future by investing $10 million for building the classrooms and building upgrades around the school, along with the specialist learning areas to modernise the public school facilities.

The construction work was due to begin this financial year, and I understand that some site preparation work had already commenced. But, unfortunately, this is where the lessons of history come back into play: the tales of the Liberal government's agenda to close almost 50 public schools when they were last in government, a process overseen by the now Treasurer, the Hon. Rob Lucas. It took less than a year for the Marshall Liberal government to continue its crusade against the public school assets, moves that again show the Liberal Party's view on public education in South Australia.

Deep cuts to the department, zone changes, underfunding their only education policy of moving year 7s into high school, and a short-changing of infrastructure projects in dozens of public schools were implemented. It quickly become clear: the Marshall Liberal government's complete lack of vision for the future of South Australia's public schools.

Then, last year, we had the shock announcement that the Minister for Education wanted to close another public school, Springbank Secondary College. Just months earlier, the Marshall Liberal government informed families previously zoned to the Adelaide High School that Springbank was one of the schools they would be sending their children to. This was all after only a couple of years earlier the then Liberal opposition demanded that the Labor government guarantee that this school remain open.

The Friends of the Springbank Secondary College and the Save Springbank campaign, along with the member for Badcoe, Ms Jayne Stinson, are calling for the school to remain open, the $10 million promised to the school by the previous Labor government to be spent on the planned improvements to the school, and a shared school zone to provide parents and carers a choice about which school is right for their child.

The local council, the City of Mitcham, has universally supported these pleas. We thank them for their leadership. A shared school zone is of particular merit. Certainly, we have shared school zones in other parts of the state. Springbank and Unley are clearly quite different schools, especially in terms of size but also in terms of focus, and this is an important factor for any parent.

As I look around this chamber, this is a decision most of us have been required to make: what is the right school for our children? It is a decision that can be a difficult one to make. Indeed, for the 50-odd students in the disability unit, the difference between Unley High and Springbank is crucial for the parents who do make this choice. Establishing a shared school zone is a sensible approach to satisfying those locally zoned families who believe Unley High is better suited to their children's needs, but also to meet the needs of those who believe Springbank is the better option for their child.

It is a win-win, and we would very strongly urge the government to look at this option if their intention is to provide quality education, rather than closing a school to save money or even make money from the sale of the land. The local MP for a large section of the Springbank school zone, the member for Badcoe, Ms Jayne Stinson, has been actively, thoroughly and genuinely consulting her constituents, as well as those in the Elder, Unley and Waite areas, about the impact of this closure. The member from the other place, the member for Badcoe, has achieved this by attending several public meetings and holding her own community meetings and, in more recent times, Zoom meetings. The member for Badcoe and the Labor opposition have also sought the community's views through a survey and directly speaking with hundreds of local residents.

It is a terrible shame that, even though the member for Badcoe clearly has a direct interest in this matter as an elected representative for many existing and prospective families attending the school, to the best of my knowledge no-one from the government has contacted the member for Badcoe—not even a phone call—about the government's plans to shut down one of the local high schools in the community she has been elected to represent. It is one of the many signs that this government is not serious about community consultation if it cannot reply to one letter or pick up the phone to the local MP.

It is really disappointing. This community deserves better. They deserve to know about important decisions before the media does. They deserve to hear informed decisions from all their local MPs, not just the Liberals. They deserve a say in what the future of their education looks like. Most of all, they deserve a chance to grow their school and see it flourish. That is why Labor is supporting this motion and will continue to support the Springbank Secondary College community in their fight to keep this school open.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (17:29): I rise to strongly support the motion by the Hon. Tammy Franks. With the Hon. Ms Franks and other MPs, including Carolyn Power, the local member for Elder, and Labor's Jayne Stinson, whose electorate takes in the school zone, I attended a parents and friends community meeting on 12 March, in which the future of Springbank Secondary College was passionately discussed. I met with the Principal, Wendy House, who coincidentally attended the same high school as me—Underdale—as well as the enthusiastic convener of the Friends of Springbank Secondary College, Danielle Duffield, but, more importantly, the parents and the kids who love going to that school.

One parent told me how it has dramatically changed the life of his son: a once troubled boy who avoided school so much that he often refused to leave the vehicle when he was being dropped off. Now he looks forward to it every day. Another student with learning difficulties has responded to the nurturing philosophy espoused by Ms House and her dedicated staff. One child made a poster, which she handed to me, and I seek leave to show it to the members in here. It is not offensive, it is not political.

The PRESIDENT: No, no props. The Hon. Mr Pangallo, no props—the same rule as always.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Okay. It is not a prop. It emphasises the message that I am trying to deliver here.

The PRESIDENT: If you hold it up I will tell you off.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: I did not hold it up. I expected that you would not—

The PRESIDENT: If you hold it up I will tell you off.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: I will continue.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: It is outrageous, the Hon. Mr Pangallo. Please put the prop down.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: It was an eight-year-old child who absolutely loves her school and loves going there and is so thankful of the environment in there. I also met an Indigenous teenager and his mum who told me of the long trip they undertake each day to get there, and it was so worthwhile to his mental wellbeing.

The students are benefiting from partnerships with Flinders University, the Australian Science and Mathematics School and Basketball SA's academy. The stories I heard that night from parents whose children have had a positive experience that they may not have had at other public schools resonated strongly with me. This school has a special unit that conducts specialist programs for kids with learning problems and disabilities.

They are responding in a way that would not be possible in a mainstream school like Unley High, which is where the minister intends to amalgamate Springbank. I know what these parents are going through, and they hold legitimate fears that their kids may well fall through the cracks in a larger and less welcoming school environment.

That is not to say that Unley is not a good school. By all accounts from people I know, it is one of the best public schools in the inner south, and has been historically. In fact, it is where our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, attended. There are numerous alumni comprising lots of MPs, including former premier, the late John Bannon; Michael Atkinson, the former Speaker; Mark Butler, the member for Hindmarsh; Amanda Rishworth, the member for Kingston; former state governors, Sir Mark Oliphant and Dr Keith Seaman; ex-Crows player and current Melbourne coach, Simon Goodwin—who you would be familiar with, Mr President—a host of Sturt greats, such as John Halbert; the ICAC commissioner, the Hon. Bruce Lander; and on it goes. The question is: is it the right one for Springbank's cohort?

I will go back to my own personal experience and that of my wife, Angie, with our son, Connor, and the challenges parents face dealing with the unknown. When Connor was seven he was enrolled in the junior school at Mercedes. He was unsettled and had trouble fitting in. Social distancing was actually practised there by the kids in his class—they avoided Connor. He was without friends. It was quite heartbreaking for me to see him playing alone at recess and lunch breaks. He was not invited to birthday parties.

We knew he was a bright boy and quite focused on particular things but we could not put a finger on it, and neither could the school. One abrupt senior teacher even told us that Connor's behaviour was so poor that he would not amount to much in life and was unlikely to finish school.

My wife went looking for answers the school could not give us. A wonderful psychologist named Dr Lindy Petersen and an education advocate, Mark Le Messurier, opened our eyes to Connor's unique world. He was diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome and on the higher end of the spectrum. Even then, there was little if anything available in our school system to deal with children like Connor. We were advised to place him in a smaller school environment. We chose St Joseph's at Kingswood, and I will say he will be eternally grateful for the great support and mentoring he received from a very caring principal, Mr Justin Cavuoto.

By year 8, Connor was ready to return to Mercedes and prove a point to that senior teacher—that he was not worthless. In 2017, he was dux of Mercedes, achieving an ATAR of 99.8 and three SACE merit awards. He is in his third year at Flinders University and is flying high in his double degree of law and international relations. He sees Asperger's syndrome as a gift, not a hindrance. Even if they may be socially awkward, they make up for it with a strong determination to succeed. The only unfortunate thing with Connor is that we often have many political discussions, and I have not quite convinced him that he should switch sides.

Where it changed for Connor was a spontaneous initiative in 2007 by my wife, Angie, with a few other mothers with children on the spectrum. Determined that their kids should reach their potential, they started the not-for-profit Gold Foundation, running social skills programs using a meagre $15,000 grant from Angela Condous and The Advertiser Foundation—and we are thankful for it.

From eight boys in 2007 it now has 661 children of various ages registered and attending programs at the Camden premises. The point I am making here is that you never take hope away from parents and children. It can destroy confidence. Our public schools are really only now grappling with these complex children with special needs. Springbank is one of them and, by all accounts, is doing exceptionally well in this area. Smaller environments do produce much better outcomes. Experts in this field have confirmed this.

The education minister, John Gardner, wants to take away all that good work they are doing, reneging on the accolades he was freely handing out in March last year that the school had a rich future with its smaller environment and a caring focus, and there was a promise of a $10 million upgrade. Fast forward to 4 March this year: without consulting the school community, he announces, by press release, a ministerial review because the school is not hitting its targets and growing student numbers.

I suspect it is partly his bean-counting bureaucrats telling him to ditch the school and absorb its 167 students elsewhere and 'Let's flog the huge site to developers'. He also announced the $32 million upgrade to make Unley an even larger school, with more students, particularly when year 7s go into high schools.

For expediency he has appointed a review committee headed by an experienced and respected DECD regional director. It includes the principal and members of the governing council from Springbank and Unley. They will go through the motions; however, you get the impression the minister has already signed Springbank's death warrant, particularly when he found $10 million to spend at nearby Urrbrae high school. Could it be the $10 million that was originally earmarked for Springbank?

I can see Springbank from my home. I remember the school well from its days as Daws Road High, when it had about 1,000 students. It later morphed into Pasadena High. Daw Park and the surrounding suburbs of St Marys, Bedford Park, Panorama, Pasadena, Clovelly Park and Colonel Light Gardens were strong working-class areas in the sixties and seventies heyday. Today, they are undergoing gentrification and redevelopment. More younger families are moving in because it has become affordable.

Their kids are going to need a nearby school, not having to catch a couple of buses to get to and from Unley High or Mitcham and other schools. Then, of course, there are the special needs kids. Who is going to care for them? Do not count on it happening at Unley when it is bulging at the seams. I urge the minister to appreciate the enormous value and good that is happening at Springbank college and give it the time and opportunities to expand on Wendy House's exceptional achievements by abandoning the review. In saying that, we warmly endorse the member's motion.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (17:40): I rise to make some remarks in relation to this motion. Springbank Secondary College, as previous speakers have noted, was formerly known as Pasadena High and, prior to that, Daws Road High School. In March this year, the Minister for Education approved the establishment of the Springbank Educational Review Committee under part 2A of the Education Act. At the time that the announcement was made by the minister, he stressed that the government's priority is to ensure that current and future generations of students have access to high-quality public education.

While the government has confidence in teaching and learning at Springbank Secondary College, it is concerning that the local community has not demonstrated the same level of confidence in sending their children to their local zoned school. The low numbers contribute to a significant challenge for the school to offer the full range of curriculum options that families and students reasonably expect from their local zoned public high school.

While the government understands that the current circumstances are challenging, the government is also focused on the future and the need to continue to improve the outcomes for students. It is important that the review continue as announced so that the Springbank community and the local community have the opportunity to present their views and be heard by the review committee. The government is confident that the review chair, Ms Terry Sizer, will ensure that the consultation is thorough and incorporates feedback from all relevant parties, including students, parents, staff and the governing councils of local schools. With those remarks, I indicate that the government does not support this motion.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:41): I thank those speakers who have made a contribution today and put their positions on the record—the Hon. Emily Bourke on behalf of the Labor opposition, the Hon. Frank Pangallo on behalf of SA-Best and the Hon. Minister for Human Services on behalf of the government.

I note that when it has come to the issue of Springbank Secondary College there have been lies, damned lies and government statistics. This school was told of this review, not actually by press release as the Hon. Frank Pangallo noted, but by a press conference held at their school. They woke up to see on the front page of the newspaper that this review had been announced, having microphones shoved into the face of children at the school, creating great anxiety, creating great distress and citing some figures which have just been repeated here today about a lack of choice for those in the zone.

What those figures fail to acknowledge, where the minister cites supposedly lessening enrolments, is that Springbank has been growing. I will draw members' attention to the article by Caleb Bond in the East and Hills weekly Messenger back in 2018 in October. Springbank has been springing back. It has had a very difficult past but, after that voluntary vote, they had rebranded and they were in fact growing. That article of October 2018 highlighted the fact that the school was set to offer two year 8 classes in the next year, after offering only a single year 8 class the year before and a combined year 8/9 class the year before that.

It noted that enrolments in higher year levels were also increasing and that the school's disability unit is at capacity. It lauded the STEAM focus—not just science, technology and engineering but also the arts and maths—as something for its future and, of course, the other offerings that that school has that make it quite a unique school. But in the statistics where the focus is only on those local zoned children's enrolments, in what is in fact a plethora of choices in both the public and private system, what has been ignored time and time again is that the school is actually growing and that two-thirds of the students currently at the Springbank Secondary College do not come from the zone. Two-thirds—two in every three students at this school—choose to come from elsewhere.

Do you know why they choose that? Because the choices they are offered locally have failed them. This is in fact a school that is small by design, it is not one size fits all, and many parents and children are choosing Springbank. Two-thirds do not come from the Springbank zone. Two-thirds actually want Springbank to be there.

I thank the Hon. Frank Pangallo for sharing his personal perspective. As a parent of somebody who is in year 7 now and is looking to go into year 8 next year, I have just received the email asking me what school I want to choose for my child. My child has a range of diagnoses, including sensory processing disorders, and in fact small by design is what will suit her. She has indicated to me that she wants a small school. Our local school has over 1,500 students in it. That is no choice for her. That is no choice for her future.

I will fill in this form this week to send back to the department knowing full well that they are seeking to shut down Springbank by the end of the year and knowing full well that in the announcement of the review they have offered students a subsidy to buy new uniforms. That is no open-ended review—a subsidy to buy new uniforms at a school where some of those students had already attended and had dropped out, where they had been bullied, where Unley had in fact turned away students with disability because they had stated directly to them that they could not support them at the Unley High School and so they have found a home at Springbank.

This is the situation we face here with this government's sneaky review. Under the particular provision of the act that was put in after the now Treasurer, then education minister, shut down schools en masse the last time he was in government, we know that this is a protection measure to stop sneaky governments shutting down schools without the community having a say. The review at the moment does not listen to parents like me, parents who are looking for a small-by-design school, parents of those children at the disability unit at capacity who do not have options in their local zones, who are not suited by this large-size-fits-all approach and, while some members of their family will thrive in schools like Unley, who are much more suited to Springbank.

Despite the hurdles being put in its way, I believe that Springbank should spring back. I believe that the government has got this wrong. If they look at their words in opposition and stay true to them and be honest with the South Australian public about their intentions here, I think they will go back and come clean with the community about the fact that they have got this wrong. This review has created anxiety and distress right from the get-go, from the way the minister announced it to the way that it has been rolled out. It was without detail at first and now with detail that basically offers students new uniforms, incorporates only the options for a merger with Unley and does not talk about a shared zone, which is what the Springbank Secondary College community has called for.

The review does not acknowledge that we are in COVID times right now and the community cannot even gather to ensure that their voice is heard, nor does it acknowledge the anxiety that all children in this state are facing right now with regard to their schooling is not just doubled but probably tripled by the Springbank kids and the potential Springbank kids who do not even know if their school—their beloved school, the school that two-thirds of them chose even though they do not live in the zone—will be gone and that choice taken away by the Marshall Liberal government.

It is an indefensible position that the Marshall Liberal government brings, and it is a position that seems to speak of some sort of idea that Unley High fits all. Unley is a very fine school and it does have a fine alumni. I would note on that, however, that the Hon. Dennis Hood and I share a high school alumni that perhaps has not had quite as many premiers, but Parafield Gardens High School did indeed produce at least two members of this current parliament.

Schools suit their communities and their communities are more than just the postcodes and the suburbs around them. Springbank is a very strong community. Springbank Secondary College has had to suffer a voluntary vote, years and years of distress and anxiety, coupled with this slap in the face in the way they are being treated now by the Marshall Liberal government.

Choice is more than curriculum and choice is more than just rewarding those high achievers who will do well no matter what school they go to. Choice is about giving every child in this state a range of options, where it does not matter that they are a little bit odd or a little bit unusual or that they may have diagnoses. Choice is having a range of options to choose from, where if they are bullied at one school they still have another option like Springbank to go to.

I note one child in particular, who I mentioned in my previous contribution. She was failing at her previous school. She was being bullied and here at Springbank she is now on the SRC and I see joy in her face. There were so many children like that in that room that the minister should have come and talked to that night, rather than do his press conference a few weeks prior on that morning.

The Marshall government has got this wrong. Choice is more to these children than just whether or not they can do a particular subject. Choice is whether or not they will survive at school. Where many kids will thrive at Unley, not all kids will. They may have that uniform that the government will fund for them, but if they never actually make it through the school gates at Unley, or if when they do they are completely isolated even beyond this pandemic, then what choice have you given them at all?

Motion carried.

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