Dear Parents, Staff and Students,
[avatar user=”Mark” size=”thumbnail” align=”right” /]
[avatar user=”Father Cranshaw” size=”thumbnail” align=”right” /]
Today the Victorian Government announced a State of Disaster in accordance with the provisions in the Emergency Management Act 1986 (State). In conjunction with this announcement the State Government has introduced a range of other measures based on provisions in the Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (and associated Regulations (2019) (State)) which has been the basis for all previous pronouncements by the State Government. As you may know, many other changes have occurred to the regulatory framework in which we operate which have required us to change our operations and policies continually over this period of time. What you may not know is that all organisations must comply with these pronouncements or risk significant corporate and individual fines and penalties (eg in just one case the penalties are a $39,000+ fine for individuals and nearly $200,000 for the school). Whether we individually support the changes or not, the College is in no position to do anything other than to comply with the requirements. We thank the vast majority of our parents for their support over the past few months and ask that you continue to support us through these upcoming weeks.
We are currently working through the implications of the declaration of a State of Disaster for our school. The implications of this development are something we need time to absorb. We have plans in place for this sort of eventuality and will communicate them with you once they have been finalised and communicated to staff.
We can tell you all that our school will be open on Monday and Tuesday of this week for students in Years 10 to 12 (ie our VCE students) and for other students who need our support as previously discussed. On Tuesday evening we will send out a further communication detailing our plans from Wednesday of this week and from then on.
The current situation is obviously extraordinary and unprecedented. It has impacted on students, families and staff alike. We are encouraging our students and staff alike to take a positive mindset into the upcoming period of time so we can get the most out of it that we can.
Given we will be heading back into a period of Virtual Home Learning, we are asking parents to communicate with us as soon as possible today or tomorrow if you have short comings in your technological capacity at home. While we cannot promise we can resolve the issues, we will address as many issues as we can in any way we can.
God bless and keep safe.