Both Adelaide city high schools have principal vacancies after Adelaide High School’s Anita Zocchi takes job at University City College
BOTH of Adelaide’s city high schools — one a century old, the other yet to open — now have leadership vacancies, following the resignation of Adelaide High principal Anita Zocchi.
- Location of new high school in Adelaide CBD revealed
- No principal appointed to new city high school
- New city high school to cost $100m and take further 250 students
BOTH of Adelaide’s public city high schools — one a century old, the other yet to open — now have leadership vacancies, following the resignation of Adelaide High principal Anita Zocchi.
Independent school University Senior College has announced that Ms Zocchi, who has led Adelaide High for six years, will be its new principal from July 1.
The Education Department will advertise in April to replace Ms Zocchi.
The department has already readvertised the position of principal for the CBD high school under construction on Frome Rd, set to open in 2019.
The Advertiser reported in December that the $160,000-a-year role at the new school had failed to attract a suitable applicant. Another 13 other public schools began 2017 with vacant principal positions because of a dearth of quality candidates and difficulties luring educators to remote areas.
It can now be revealed that on top of the $100 million construction price tag, the new CBD high school will require $5.6 million in state funding to run in its first year in 2019, when it will likely have 500 enrolments of Year 8s and 9s.
As those students flow through the school to Year 12, the annual funding will grow to $12.7 million by the time the 1250-student capacity is reached in 2022.
Opposition education spokesman John Gardner blamed the principal recruitment problem on the State Government’s slowness, saying a new city school would have opened in 2014 under a Liberal Government.
Education Department executive director for partnerships, schools and preschools, Anne Millard, said Ms Zocchi had “provided outstanding leadership in the public education system and in particular as the principal of Adelaide High School”.
“The department will begin the recruitment process for a new principal in partnership with the Adelaide High School Governing Council. This key position is an excellent opportunity for committed and focused leader,” she said.
Ms Zocchi, who was Adelaide High’s first female principal in its more than 100-year history, will replace University Senior College principal Bob Holloway.
Mr Holloway will retire after 12 years at the helm of the private school, which caters exclusively for Year 11 and 12 students. It is based at the Adelaide University campus and has partnerships with the uni, but is run independently.