An inner-south Catholic primary school will stay open until at least 2023 while the Catholic Education office explores options to make it financially sustainable.
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St Bede's Primary School was initially told it could close by the end of the year because of low enrolments and the higher median income of parents leading to a drop in government funding.
Director of Catholic Education in Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese Ross Fox told a town hall meeting on Tuesday the change in government funding policy was putting pressure on all Catholic schools but St Bede's was the only one facing closure.
"We need the community to be committed to St Bede's," Mr Fox said.
"We need to maintain enrolments and hopefully grow them."
Mr Fox would not give a minimum enrolments level that would ensure the future of the school, but he said finances would be much better if there were about 200 students, up from the current 140 students.
He said the school was expected to be in deficit by 2023 if enrolments stayed the same while the government funding dropped in line with the Gonski 2.0 model.
St Bede's principal Julie Douglas said the enrolments took a hit in 2017 when Canberra Grammar School went co-ed. She said Red Hill Primary School was full and the smaller environment at St Bede's suited many local children better.
Mr Fox said Catholic Education would consider ways to lower non-teaching costs and to increase class sizes to make the school viable in the long term. He didn't rule out building an early learning centre at the school to stabilise enrolments, but he said raising fees was not the preferred way to deal with the looming deficit.
St Bede's parent Monica Kyburz said a new early learning centre was a fabulous idea.
"In the inner south there's a huge demand for early learning places.
"Once people find a place for their three or four-year-old, they tend to stay with the institution."
Ms Kyburz said enrolments dipped to below 100 students at one point but had been increasing steadily in the past few years.
She said open days and school tours had been cancelled in the pandemic making it difficult to drive up enrolments.
The base fees of all Catholic systemic schools in the ACT were raised by 10 per cent in 2019 in preparation for the change to the government's new means-testing methodology, known as the direct measure of income.
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Mr Fox said he had met with all Catholic school principals on Tuesday to discuss ways to save costs across the system. He said there were "challenges from a public policy perspective" if the archdiocese shifted some of the financial burden onto other schools in the system.
While the archdiocese is considering closing St Bede's Primary School, it is exploring options for opening more early learning centres and building a new school in the Molonglo Valley.
St Bede's is not the smallest ACT Catholic systemic school, but Mr Fox stressed every other school was in a different situation.
At the sometimes heated meeting, parents raised concerns that Catholic Education had not invested in the school buildings and that, coupled with the uncertain future, would put off parents from enrolling their children at the school. Parents said they valued the small, supportive environment at the school.
Hundreds of people, including parents, grandparents, ex-students, teachers and former and current principals, attended the town hall meeting at St Clare's College school hall.
A second town hall meeting will be held on May 12.
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