Catholic parents in the Southern Highlands have been blindsided by a bishop’s decision to close their school in two years’ time.
The move to shut down St Michael’s primary school in Mittagong, south of Sydney, comes against a backdrop of cost-cutting at Catholic schools across the state, but in this case, the local priest said it was due to declining enrolments with fewer families able to afford living in the area.
Earlier this year, more than a dozen northern beaches Catholic schools were told they would have to share a principal, while the Newcastle-Maitland diocese made over 50 school librarian jobs redundant.
The sector’s overarching organisation, Catholic Schools NSW, has also been the subject of a corruption inquiry , which aired allegations that cash was used to branch stack right-wing Liberal Party factions.
On Thursday, families of the 180 students at St Michael’s Catholic Parish Primary School, Mittagong were told that in 2029 their school would be merged with St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Parish Primary School, Bowral, which is five kilometres away.
Informing parents of the decision, the Bishop of Wollongong, Brian Mascord, branded the new arrangements “an amalgamation” of the two schools. The new school will be called Corpus Christi Catholic Parish Primary School and be located in the former St Thomas’ campus in Bowral.
“I know this news may come as a shock and may bring uncertainty and concern for families,” he said in a letter on Thursday afternoon.
“This is understandable and a testament to the great experience you and your family have had at St Michael’s or St Thomas Aquinas. At the same time, as Bishop, it is my responsibility to carefully consider and respond as best I can to the various needs of all people living in parishes within the diocese.”
He said the decision was made in response to a proposal from the Mittagong-Bowral parish, and factored in data, as well as consideration of the diverse needs of the people living in and around the parish.
“At present, there are needs within the Mittagong-Bowral (and broader Southern Highlands) region that are going unmet,” he said.
“While no decision has been made about how the site at Mittagong may be used from 2029, this change means the parish can explore options to meet broader community needs.”
But that explanation made little sense to mother Jennifer Hogan, who chose St Michael’s for her children after moving to Mittagong from Sydney about a year ago.
One son is in kindergarten, and she previously had plans to enrol her two younger children at the school before the news.
“The staff weren’t given any warning,” she said.
“The whole thing feels gross: no consultation, no warning, and the information is convoluted.”
“They’ve told us that a whole school is closing ... Is that because there is no other option? It doesn’t make sense – the Southern Highlands is booming. Why would you delete a whole school?”
Corpus Christi Parish priest, Father Sean Cullen said on Friday the Bowral primary school had seen numbers decline steadily over a decade. Enrolment data shows they dropped from 380 a decade to 220 this year.
“And one of the reasons for that is [that] Bowral is an expensive place to live and people with young people can’t afford to live there,” he said.
He said the decision would deliver “one vibrant school”.
He said they considered moving the school to Mittagong but said the size of land of the Bowral primary school was bigger, but the deciding factor was the parish’s Bowral church was larger and could accommodate the entire school.
So what is going to happen with the soon-to-be-empty school in Mittagong?
“The Highlands has an older population, the demographics are quite elderly ... there could be a need for some care for the aged ... but we don’t know what’s happening with the site.”
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