Question On Notice No. 2429 asked in the Legislative Council on 3 September 2019 by Hon Martin Aldridge
Question Directed to the: Minister for Education and Training
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Question
I refer to the front page of The Geraldton
Guardian on 13 August 2019 in an article entitled "Bed Fees Demand", and I ask:
(a) will the Minister please table the
agreement related to the $3.6 million investment by Nagle Catholic College in
Geraldton Residential College;
(b) does the announcement
made by the Minister to standardise private and public school student fees at
residential colleges in any way deviate from the agreement mentioned in (a);
(c) for what term has
Nagle Catholic College secured 45 beds at Geraldton Residential College and
what arrangements are in place for the public school students to access those
beds if required in the future; and
(d) what other schools in
Western Australia have entered into agreements with the State Government to
secure boarding capacity and how are these agreements affected by this
announcement?
Answered on 15 October 2019
(a) Agreement was achieved through an exchange of letters between the then Minister for Education, Hon Peter Collier MLC, and the then Executive Director of Catholic Education, Dr Tim McDonald, in late 2014. The arrangements included the following:
· a capital contribution of $80 000 per bed paid by instalments over five years to secure 45 beds at Geraldton Residential College for Nagle Catholic College students; and
· an annual building maintenance levy per bed of 10% of the cost of boarding per student.
In August 2018 the arrangement was amended to apply the annual maintenance fee to occupied beds only, rather than all 45 beds.
(b) Yes. The announcement removes the requirement to pay the annual maintenance levy.
(c) Nagle Catholic College has secured the beds in perpetuity. Should any of the 45 beds be unoccupied by Nagle Catholic College students, the residential college can seek agreement from Nagle Catholic College for them to be available to other students.
(d) St Joseph’s College, Albany, St Mary’s College, Broome and St Joseph’s School, Northam, have entered into agreements to enable their students to access residential college accommodation. Similar to Nagle Catholic College, the only change is the removal of the annual maintenance levy.