The South Australian school with just one enrolment for 2020
An SA school could reopen next year with just one student, and they’ll be outnumbered by the staff. Should it stay open? TAKE OUR POLL.
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A public primary school faces the farcical possibility of operating next year with multiple staff but only one student.
But it seems increasingly likely that Tantanoola Primary will be shutting its doors on 136 years of history.
The South-East school finished Term 4 with 10 students between Years 2 and 7, down from 13 enrolments earlier this year.
But only one upper primary student is enrolled to return next year.
A meeting between education authorities and a parent of the sole remaining child was to happen on Thursday, but was postponed until the new year.
State Education Minister John Gardner said the school community expressed a preference to stay open when they had three expected enrolments for 2020, but with the prospect of increasing that number.
“Now that some of these enrolments have withdrawn, and only one enrolment remains for 2020, obviously circumstances have changed,” he said.
“Clearly, all students benefit from being in an environment where they can interact with their peers, both during lesson time and in breaks.
“We are currently working through options with relevant members of the local community.”
The Advertiser put in a request with the Education Department to speak with outgoing principal Lesley Okholm.
She had told the South Eastern Times: “If the school has one student on day one (next year), which I imagine it will, there will be staff here.
“We have done a few things to prepare and we will be moving the classroom into the administration block to ensure more than one adult is around the child.
“The teacher and administration staff will be on deck, but at this stage we do not have a principal at the school for 2020.”
According to its website, this year the school had a principal, one full-time classroom teacher, one part-time teacher for two days a week, a finance officer, an “admin officer/playgroup leader” and two “classroom support persons”.
The Education Department said schools could be closed down after a majority vote of parents, or following an external review by the education minister.
Enrolments would be assessed again in the new year, the department said.
In 2008 the school had 66 students. It had fallen to 29 by 2013, than plummeted to seven in 2014. It has maintained about a dozen students over each of the past five years.
The school opened in 1883 and a new gym was built in 2011, its website says.