AS the new state primary school at Everleigh welcomed its first students two weeks ago, a major concern about the future sat in the back of parents’ minds.
There’s only one public high school in the area, and although it’s still years away for some families, they’re already being compelled to consider wait lists for private secondary schools.
Park Ridge State High is the sole public high school servicing the catchment of Everleigh, Greenbank, New Beith, and Park Ridge.
The state government is currently looking at its options. However, no commitments have been made.
Families could therefore still need to look outside the catchment or at private education for the foreseeable future.
New Beith mum of two Christine Grisinger said the new state school is a great addition, but the lack of public high schools is worrying.
“It’s one very, very big concern happening at the moment,” she said.
“There’s no high school, so all our young children that are starting – our only catchment is Park Ridge High and I’ve heard it’s at full capacity.”
Her five- and seven-year-olds started school at Everleigh State School, but even before then she had plans for high school in the back of her mind.
“We have been told to start looking at putting our girls on waiting lists so they can potentially get into a private school around us,” she said.
Everleigh resident Lauren Bickley has similar concerns with her preppie starting at the school.
Ms Bickley hopes the new school will bring about expansion for a high school, and fast.
“I would assume that given now there’s a primary school, there’ll be an expansion with a high school for children to feed into,” she said.
“We’re just hopeful that in the next six years, there will be somewhere that will be being built.”
A source within the Queensland Government said declining enrolments and the increasing capacity of both Flagstone State Community College and Park Ridge State High School could slow the forecast for when new schools are built.
This has been offset by enrolments for year seven and eight cohorts being down on previous years at both schools.
However, Logan MP Linus Power said his government are seriously looking at fast-tracking developments, but would not reveal exact timeframes.
“We’ve built Everleigh, we’ve done the big expansions in Park Ridge, we’ve also built the new classrooms in Flagstone State Community College, and we’re pushing very hard to bring forward the plans to build the second high school in Flagstone,” he said.
“That would cover Greenbank and Everleigh.”
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