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School closure
'not on ACT
Govt agenda'
By KAREN POLGLAZE
Picture: DAVID FOOTE Skye Manly, 9, Stephanie Howe, 8, Heather Butler, 8, and Penelope Holder, 9, (front) ... the students are still waiting to see what will happen to Weetangera Primary School, Help
Picture: DAVID FOOTE
Skye Manly, 9, Stephanie Howe, 8, Heather Butler, 8, and Penelope Holder, 9, (front) ... the
students are still waiting to see what will happen to Weetangera Primary School,
Weetangera Primary School
supporters had hoped that the
fate of their school would be de-
cided by the Alliance Govern-
ment today.
However, the issue of the pro-
posed closure is not on the agen-
da for the joint party room
meeting.
For 21 days parents, friends
and students of the school have
mounted a campaign against the
school's closure, announced by
the Minister for Education, Gary
Humphries, on July 31.
The people of Weetangera
have fought hard to keep their
primary school open. They have
spent the last three weeks lob-
bying politicians, holding public
and private meetings, dropping
livers into letterboxes, trying to
interview every' resident of their
suburb and talking almost con-
stantly to the media.
They have even looked into
mounting a legal challenge
against the Government's deci-
sion to close the school.
The Weetangera Action
Group was formed within 24
hours of the closure announce-
ment. Teams of committed work-
ers scrutinised the rationale for
the closure given by the Govern-
ment, and came up with some
surprising facts.
Politicians who had made the
decision to close Weetangera
had been unaware, apparently, of
four hearing-impaired students
involved in a special program
there. Hurried attempts to find
another school for these children
only heightened public anger
about closures.
The Government had been un-
aware also of the large after
school care program at Weetan-
gera. More than 160 children
from the west Belconnen area
attend the program.
Hawker Primary School, the
school designated by the Govern-
ment as the receiving school for
Weetangera students, does not
have an after-school care pro-
gram.
The 53 children who moved to
Weetangera after the Page
school was shut down, in the last
round of school closures at the
end of 1988, also seemed to have
been left out of consideration.
A statement contained in the
ACT Schools Authority report,
Community Schools for Can-
berra 1989-2000, which said,
"Public schooling will continue
to be available at both Hawker
and Weetangera primary schools
for at least the next five years",
had led the Weetangera commu-
nity to believe their school was
safe for a while.
That statement, apparently,.
was not drawn to the attention of
Government members at the
time of the decision-making.
When the Government was
made aware of these matters it
decided to reassess the decision
to close Weetangera.
There has been a school in
Weetangera since April 22,
1875. The original school used to
be on old Weetangera Road -
now Belconnen Way.
Soon Weetangera will find out
whether that part of their com-
munity heritage will come to an
end.
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