Businessman Ayub Khan behind plans to reopen collapsed Colmont School in Kilmore

The failed school in Kilmore could be given a lifeline under a bold proposal to have students back for term one next year.

Businessman Ayub Khan is the financial backer of the plan to reopen Colmont School. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Prep students could study the prestigious International Baccalaureate at a revived select entry school if a bid to overhaul the failed Colmont School goes ahead.

Parents and members from the collapsed private school are calling on the state’s education regulator to fast track a proposal to open a new select entry Kilmore International School in time for term one 2023.

Businessman Ayub Khan, the financial backer of the plan, will submit an application to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) to be allowed to open the revived co-ed school, with its old name restored, for students from grade 3 to year 11.

Ayub Khan with students Ben, Olivia, Senul, Winter and Nulan. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It follows Colmont’s sudden closure in June which saw more than 350 students urgently relocated to other schools, some up to three hours away by car.

Mr Khan plans to open the school on the same property where Colmont was located, making it a new school in its own right, amid investigations into Colmont’s former board members who are believed to have kept the school running despite knowing they could not cover its debts.

If the school is given the go-ahead, its IB program for VCE students will return, along with new offerings of primary and early secondary equivalents.

The IB is a broader program in which students undertake more advanced applied learning subjects in conjunction with community service.

Year 12 and preps to grade two students would be welcomed back in 2024.

If the school is given the go-ahead, its IB program for VCE students will return. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Probes into the former Colmont school’s finances continue, but parents are pleading with the government to allow their children to start the new year at the revamped school.

Mr Khan said there was “huge” need in Kilmore for the new and improved school to reopen urgently because dozens of families were left without a nearby alternative that matched Colmont’s tailored approach for academically gifted students.

“Overwhelming demand from parents in the area has remained,” he said.

“We want to go back to what it used to be, before it became Colmont in the last few years.

“That’s how the kids can then flourish, when you don’t have people coming in and changing things like the last administration.”

Parents of more than 150 students have expressed interest in enrolling their children at the new school, and 32 teachers have signed on to work there.

A VRQA spokesman said: “Any application for a new school goes through a thorough and in-depth process to ensure that it would be compliant with minimum standards contained with the Education and Training Reform Regulations”.

It is unclear whether Mr Khan’s application will be fast tracked after missing the regular cut off date to submit an application, which was June 30.

Former head of primary school Julie Daniels, whose year 12 daughter attended Colmont before it collapsed, said she and many other parents were “desperate” to have Kilmore reopened.

She will resume as head of the junior year levels once Mr Khan is given the green light.

There isn’t anything like what the Kilmore International School was, so we desperately need it to open as soon as possible,” she said.

“It wasn’t just a school, it was part of our community.”

Leigh Eeles, whose 3 boys attended Colmont, said he would enrol them to the revived school once it is allowed to open.

“Given the fact that there’s already the buildings and classrooms since the administrators handed it back to the landlord and the teachers are available, in theory, it could open tomorrow,” he said.

“We didn’t really know what we were missing until it was gone.”

Alok Thakur, whose year 7 son Vyom was forced to board at Ballarat Clarendon College following Colmont’s sudden closure, said he hoped the new school was approved.

“We’ve already been burned once. We don’t want to get burned twice. But it looks like if the school comes back, he’s going to start grade eight there next year.”

Colmont was liquidated in November, when a report showed board members may have traded while insolvent for at least six months before its collapse.