Emerald and District Educational Community spokesperson Lee Fuller, Emerald Primary School principal Terry Simpson, students Madelane Ferme and Mitchell Copey and assistant principal Marg Anderson celebrate the news that a cluster of seven local schools will not be divided.By Tania Martin
SEVEN local schools last week celebrated a victory to continue sharing educational resources.
The Emerald and District Educational Community (EDEC) cluster comprises seven schools and was at risk of being divided under a State Government initiative to form new regional boundaries.
The EDEC cluster includes Emerald Secondary College and Cockatoo, Emerald, Gembrook, Macclesfield, Menzies Creek and Selby primary schools.
In June the community banded together after the State Government announced plans to divide the cluster as a part of its A Fairer Victoria strategy.
EDEC cluster spokesperson Lee Fuller said the realignment of regional boundaries would have resulted in Cockatoo, Emerald and Gembrook primary schools and Emerald Secondary College moving from the Eastern to the Southern Region as they were part of the Cardinia Shire Council.
Ms Fuller said the other three primary schools would have remained in the Eastern Region.
She said the EDEC cluster schools had worked closely for more than 18 years, and the division would have adversely affected the cooperative partnership that had existed for that time.
“Under the realignment of municipal boundaries the seven schools would have been split across two regional networks,” Ms Fuller said.
“The EDEC cluster would have been unable to continue to operate as successfully because of the competing demands to attend different regional network meetings.”
Ms Fuller said it was great news that Minister for Education Lynne Kosky had agreed to keep the seven EDEC schools together in the Eastern Region.
Ms Kosky last week announced that after examining the work the EDEC schools did together on educational provision, curriculum, professional development, student welfare and other functions, it made sense to keep the cluster together.
She said keeping the cluster as it stood would make sure the strength of its longstanding and successful collaboration was not at risk of being spread across two regions for the sake of administrative purposes.
Ms Fuller said this win for EDEC had demonstrated the local communities’ ability to work together to achieve a common goal, one of the stated aims of A Fairer Victoria.
Monbulk MP James Merlino and Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato last week welcomed the announcement.
“In response to the concerns raised with us by local schools we strongly argued that the EDEC cluster should be allowed to stay together,” they said.
Mr Merlino and Ms Lobato said after working closely with the principals and school councils to resolve the issue, it was extremely pleasing to see the State Government had listened to their views.
“This decision means that EDEC can continue its longstanding and successful collaboration in the delivery of education services in the area,” they said.
