SHARK BAY SCHOOL
1554. Hon KEN BASTON to the Minister for Education and
Training:
I refer to the temporary closure of Shark Bay School on 7
November 2019.
(1) Who is responsible for making the final decision to
temporarily close a school due to fire danger?
(2) Is it a statewide
policy for a school to close if it is located within an area where catastrophic
fire danger weather conditions are declared?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) Upon receiving an alert from Department of Fire
and Emergency Services, the final decision to temporarily close a school
due to fire danger rating of catastrophic is made by the deputy director
general of schools or the manager of security and emergency management.
(2) Yes. The Department of Education's
guidelines state that public schools listed on the bushfire zone register
with a rating of very high or extreme will close on the day of the catastrophic
fire danger rating. I table a copy of the Department of Education document ''The
Principal's Guide to Bushfire''.
[See paper 3486.]