Katanning Senior High School, Education Department respond to shire president’s comments on school leadership

Shire of Katanning president Liz Guidera is calling for a thorough and transparent process to attract a new principal to Katanning Senior High School after the secondment of current principal Carolyn Cook. The Department of Education accepted Ms Cook into its Leadership Institute last week, for what department spokeswoman Milanna Heberle said was an acknowledgement of her “skills and experience”. The school was the subject of a tough review in 2015, when the Department’s Expert Review Group was brought in to look at falling student performance and low staff morale. Ms Cook came out of retirement to take the full-time job as principal in 2018. A Department spokeswoman said Ms Cook was appointed through a transparent selection process that met public sector standards in human resource management and was open to external review. Ms Guidera said finding “a new enthusiastic and professional leader” should be a priority for the school. “Our kids deserve a good education, so why can’t we have the best principal?” Ms Guidera said. “I want to ensure that the next person is the leader we need and we actually need that to be a robust process and transparent process.” During Ms Cook’s secondment with the Leadership Institute, Denise Robinson will lead KSHS. “Ms Robinson has held senior leadership positions at Shenton College and Mindarie Senior College and most recently, Morley Senior High School,” Ms Heberle said. “She has also worked with the Department of Education NSW in the area of quality teaching and has a passion for working closely with migrant families.” KSHS secretary Ian Hanna acknowledged the need to make sure the next principal was the right person for the job, but called out Ms Guidera for overstepping her mark as Shire president. “What Liz is suggesting is breaking the mould of principal selection by the Department of Education,” he said. Responding to queries from the Herald, Ms Heberle said the department had no serious areas of concern about KSHS. While Ms Guidera acknowledged it was not her role to select the next principal, she said the Shire was responsible for ensuring basic access to a complete range of services in the community, including education. “We provide public education as a right, so why should it be that the level of education varies dependant upon where you live or how much money you have got?” she said. “So when we talk about equity of education, do you think we are providing equity of education in that area?” In February, Ms Guidera met with Department of Education director-general Lisa Rogers to discuss concerns about KSHS raised by the community. She said that in the lead-up to the meeting, she received nearly 50 letters from parents, an ex-teacher and concerned community members informing her of inconsistent behavioural management problems, a lack of communication between the leadership group and teachers, and concerns over student safety at the school. She said stagnant leadership and poor results had created negative perceptions of the school and contributed to a demographic gap in the region. “We find people are very engaged in their community and are happy to live in a rural community while their kids are young, but we see a reluctance once they hit high school age,” she said. “If they were confident that they could get the education that they felt they require or deserve they wouldn’t leave for the city. “This affects our town because those kids who leave, and some of them do a lot of volunteer work, leave a gap in our community and we have less volunteering in our town because of it.” KSHS board chairwoman Lisa Forman said the school had strived to provide opportunities through student support programs implemented during Ms Cook’s tenure. She said the programs had shown signs of improved performance. Since Ms Cook’s appointment in 2018, the number of students sitting ATAR has risen 10 per cent, Year 9 NAPLAN reading results have risen more than 20 per cent and 95 per cent of students achieved a Certificate II or above in 2020, according to KSHS. Mr Hanna said while there was still “a long way to go”, there had been positive changes under the leadership of Ms Cook, compared with three years ago. “While some of these changes to date may not be happening as quickly as some people want, there is progress and we are continually looking at more options and pathways for kids,” Mr Hanna said.