ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry: “These are really serious matters, and they have serious consequences for our community.” Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
The Brindabella Christian College reform group has again called on federal and ACT education ministers to take action over the governance and financial issues at the school after an overwhelming response to its recent online survey for them to provide certainty to parents and teachers.
ReformBCC said in a statement that it wrote to ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry and her federal counterpart Jason Clare last Friday urging them to take decisive action and communicate a plan to immediately address the long-standing issues at the school and give some confidence to families returning to the school this week.
It also said that as of Monday (3 February), teachers had not been paid their quarterly superannuation, which was due on 28 January, and the Independent Education Union had told it that the school had not responded to its enquiries.
Ms Berry, who had hoped to decide by Christmas, again said on Tuesday that she had not yet made up her mind what regulatory action she would take, if any.
She told the Legislative Assembly in Question Time that she was carefully considering the response of the school’s proprietor, Brindabella Christian Education Limited, to her demand last September that it show how it would comply with a raft of conditions imposed on it under the Australian Education Act.
“These are really serious matters, and they have serious consequences to our community, particularly those at Brindabella Christian College, and so I’m taking them all very seriously … before I make a decision,” she said.
Mr Berry acknowledged the community’s frustration but assured it the government and the Registration Standards Advisory Board were working diligently within its legislative powers to ensure that the proprietors were doing the right thing.
“It’s important to explain that Brindabella Christian College are being held to account, although I understand the community’s frustration at the time that it’s taken to get a response and a clarified position,” she said.
“I’m not able to foreshadow any decisions or foreshadow any considerations that are being made at this point in time, but as soon as I am able to, I will make sure that I keep the community and the school community, in particular, engaged with those responses.”
Brindabella Christian College teachers are again waiting on super payments. Photo: Michelle Kroll
Reform BCC said 83 per cent of respondents to its survey backed the call for the ministers to make a decision.
They sought immediate assurances that the school was safe and solvent, that ministers would protect staff wages and entitlements, that sufficient teaching staff with manageable workloads were in place, and that tuition fees only go to education, not legal fees, and that parents would be protected from financial loss.
BCEL had failed to respond to union requests for assurances or an update on superannuation, leaving staff anxious when they should be free to focus on welcoming students back to school.
“These very issues and the failure to honour undertakings led to many staff resignations at the end of 2024 and the call from staff members for the full board’s immediate resignation,” it said.
More than 200 children are believed to have left the school, along with 40 staff, at the end of last year.
The seven-day survey concluded on 30 January 2025, with responses received from both current (43%) and former (57%) community members.
ReformBCC would have liked more than the 133 responses received but said the time of the year and Facebook restricting shares because ReformBCC was considered a social issues group limited its reach.
It said some community members were also nervous about speaking out about the school’s board.
The survey data and community feedback will be passed to the ministers and regulators.
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