'Review should happen': Questions raised over Brindabella Christian College student safety during a fire

Serious concerns have been raised about whether Brindabella Christian College (BCC) is safe for staff and children in the event of a fire.

During a recent ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing, advocacy group ReformBCC expressed concerns that there appeared to be issues with the school’s fire engineering report, that it was potentially “compromised” and could be void as information (which had been relied upon for the assessment) was “not accurate or current”.

“There’s an immediate risk to life and safety issues at the school that ought to be addressed,” group secretary Jodie Jayatilaka said.

A further statement from the group said that without the proper checks and balances, the status of some classrooms and student occupancy remained unknown to the fire brigade, utility providers and relevant authorities, which was compromising the “physical safety of staff and students”.

“How can the fire brigade be confident there is sufficient access and hydrant provisions, or even know the correct number of children to evacuate if the students these new buildings will occupy haven’t been counted or drawings relied upon aren’t complete and accurate?” the group asked.

“What if an emergency actually happens?”

Region spoke with a leading ACT fire engineer who has knowledge of the site and explained the fire code had stringent requirements for the distance between buildings for evacuations and fire protections to stop spread at a site with multiple buildings.

He described the school as being on a “tight site” with a custom hydrant system. The code has additional rules around the distance allowed between hydrants, coverage of the hydrants and accessibility for fire brigades.

“If things are moved … if they are changed, it needs to go back to square one [in terms of the review],” the engineer explained.

“You might think, ‘It’s one metre here, one metre there’, but that’s all it takes to disturb the level of compliance and make it so a brigade cannot access a fire.

“Changes can … compromise people’s safety.”

The fire engineer explained that reviews of buildings could occur retrospectively and that an audit could find that a site is still compliant, but the details in documents need to be updated.

He personally could not say if there was a problem at the school site, but stressed it was important for people to ask such questions if they had concerns.

“If everything is OK, at least you then know … especially when we’re dealing with children. With schools, it never hurts to express those concerns,” he said.

ACT Fire and Rescue does have the ability to audit buildings for safety and to make sure firefighters can fight fires on site. If that’s satisfied, there can then also be reviews by fire engineers into any technical breaches of the fire code.

This fire engineer felt that “ultimately a review should happen” at the school.

“There definitely seems to be enough concern to warrant a review,” he said.

“I don’t think these questions should be left unanswered.”

The school has also come to the attention of Senate Estimates.

Independent ACT Senator David Pocock questioned Education Department officials about where the school and its governing board were up to regarding fulfilling Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) orders around payment of superannuation and board appointments. (A delegate for the Education Minister had found in 2021 that BCEL was not a “fit and proper person” to operate the school.)

The Independent Education Union (ACT branch) has launched Fair Work Commission proceedings against the school for unpaid superannuation.

Education Department Assistant Secretary Robyn Beutel said while superannuation payments to staff fell within the Treasury portfolio, it was expected that the school and BCEL would “comply with those conditions”.

“They are non-compliant with some of the conditions imposed,” she confirmed.

Ms Beutel said the department had written to the board about its ongoing non-compliance and also to the ACT Education Directorate to find out what actions it was taking or considering.

Mr Pocock doubled down, stating the school was “under scrutiny” and questioned what other powers the department had so it could “ratchet this up” and ensure the school community was “protected”.

“We have been taking incremental action for non-compliance against the governing body of Brindabella,” Ms Beutel replied.

“There are probably only two options left available … [they] would be to pause [Federal] funding or cease funding.”

This comes after the school’s executive principal, Keutah Jones, announced in the newsletter that the school was successful in its registration renewal from the ACT Education Directorate and Office of ACT Non-Government Schools in May.

“I would like to acknowledge the collective efforts of all staff in maintaining high standards of excellence across the College,” she said.

But in light of the above concerns, a Non-Government Schools Registrar spokesperson stated it would now consider this new information and urged anyone who had concerns regarding “potential unsafe emergency management or practices” to get in touch via NGS.concerns@act.gov.au.

They also stated it had been communicating with BCEL over its non-compliance with Commonwealth orders.

“Non-payment of tax and superannuation is a risk factor of insolvency,” the spokesperson said.

“The Registrar is reviewing the issue and if an alleged breach is engaged, the proprietor will be afforded natural justice as set out in … the [Education] Act [2004].”

They also clarified that the new annual registration review model was targeted at specific requests for how a school performed to certain standards, not the “full scope” of each.

In the case of BCC, the school was asked about its governance structure, policies and procedures, and student movement register.

“Due to … changes to the way non-government school registration is managed, claims relating to registration ‘renewal’ at Brindabella Christian College are inaccurate,” the spokesperson said.

“The Registrar for Non-government Schools has written to the school about this matter.”

Region approached the school and board for further comment.