Teachers stood up for public education at the recent Local Government Conference at Coffs Harbour.

Teachers defend security gate program for schools

By Owen Hasler

The interests of public schools won out in debate at the recent Local Government Association conference.

The value of having teachers as local government councillors was demonstrated when the councillors debated motions affecting the interests of public schools at their annual conference.

Strathfield City Council had proposed a motion about access to open space -- enclosed lands: "That the Association request the State Government to delay the installation of fencing around schools and education establishments subject to preparing management strategies to ensure that:

"a) school and educational establishment open space remains open and accessible to the public outside school hours for informal recreational use;
"b) adequate entrance gates are provided to school grounds for the public to enter; and
"c) school communities remain safe and protected.
"Note from Council: The State Government should review its security fence program, changing the fencing so that community use of school facilities outside school hours is not unnecessarily restricted."

Hurstville City Councillor and Department of Education and Training officer Philip Sansom said: "The motion from Strathfield City Council gained vehement opposition from many of my teacher-councillor colleagues."

"Schools are first and foremost for the education of our students, not public parks," he said.

"Access is available now under controlled circumstances. There are many examples of the community using school grounds and facilities."

He told the conference that if the motion was carried it would encourage people to breach the Inclosed Lands Act by being on a school site without permission.

He said public schools need to ensure they provide a safe environment for students and the motion potentially placed teachers in a position where they would have to regularly check the playground for broken glass, syringes and the like.

"Security fencing has saved millions of dollars in terms of preventing vandalism and theft. It has also reduced the disruption to student learning and reduced the demoralisation of teachers and students when classrooms, staffrooms and students' work is destroyed or damaged," he said.

"In comparison, under this proposal private schools are not expected to provide public access to their often vast sporting areas despite being similarly funded by state and federal governments. So why should public schools do so?"

Councillor Sansom was supported by Councillor Phil Blight, a teacher at Kirrawee Public School and Sutherland Shire councillor who said: "Local government has a conflict with this issue as councils frequently criticise the State Government for passing costs and responsibilities onto local government, yet with this proposal, they are expecting schools to provide the playgrounds and playing fields that are councils' responsibility not that of the local public school."

Councillor Blight said while responsible users are encouraged at most schools, the motion would enable vandals, graffiti artists and thieves to gain easy access to school property.

"Conference should make a sensible decision and conclusively defeat the motion from Strathfield Council."

Some non-teacher councillors made the suggestion that schools should fence off school buildings from their own playground, so that outsiders could have easy access, but this would have made access more difficult for students and teachers as well as hindering teachers' duty of care.

The motion was overwhelmingly defeated.

Another motion of interest to teacher-councillors was from Blacktown Council about standards for school development applications: "That the NSW Local Government association call on the NSW State Government to introduce appropriate State-wide standards for the development of schools, whether government or non-government, particularly in relation to the amount of free play area, so as to ensure that the health and well-being of school children is not compromised."

Mr Blight explained why this motion was supported by teacher-councillors and ultimately was carried:

"The Local Government Association decided to call on the State Government to introduce appropriate standards when developing new schools or school buildings to particularly ensure that playground space is appropriate to the size of the school population," Mr Blight said.

"This would apply to both public schools, as well as non-government schools where such standards are frequently ignored to the detriment of the students especially in relation to their health."

Owen Hasler is a Country Organiser

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