Tantanoola Primary School closed for now with no enrolments, but could reopen next year
A public school that was going to operate this year with just one student has now closed - but it may not be the final chapter in its 137-year history.
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The South-East school that faced the farcical situation of running with multiple staff but only one student has closed – at least for now.
At the end of last year, Tantanoola Primary had 10 students from Years 2-7, down from 13 enrolments earlier in 2019. But only one upper primary student was enrolled to return to the 137-year-old school this year.
Principal Lesley Okholm, who was leaving anyway, late last year said if the school continued with one student, the child would be moved into the administration block “to ensure more than one adult is around the child”.
The State Government was keen to persuade the student’s family to enrol the child in another school, and that has happened.
The student is now at another public school in the South-East.
“With no enrolments at the school, the school’s operations have been suspended and alternative arrangements are being made for the playcentre (a once-a-week playgroup for children aged 0-5),” Education Minister John Gardner said.
That leaves open the possibility, albeit remote, that if there is enough enrolment interest, the school could reopen next year.
It is unclear how many enrolments would be needed to make the school viable to reopen. The Education Department said: “Future enrolment interest for Tantanoola will be managed via (our) Mount Gambier office.”
Public schools can be shut down via a majority vote of parents. But in this case there aren’t any, so a permanent closure would require Mr Gardner to undertake a review, likely later this year.
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According to the school’s website, which is still running, it had seven staff – a principal , two teachers, two classroom support workers, and finance and administration officers.
Asked what had happened to them, the department said: “Staff are being supported based on their individual situations.”
Tantanoola Primary opened in 1883 and had a new gym built in 2011.
It is the only public school to have suspended operations for this year.
No schools were permanently closed at the end of last year.
Tantanoola Primary had 66 students in 2008, 29 in 2013, just seven in 2014, and about a dozen in recent years.