Students could be left without teachers at a major high school in regional NSW amid ongoing staff shortages expected to be exacerbated by COVID-19, a teachers' union representative has warned.
Murrumbidgee Regional High School in Griffith was created by the state's Education Department in 2019 through the merging of the Griffith and Wade high schools, but it has struggled to attract and retain staff since.
Teacher Anthony Catanzariti — the school's NSW Teachers Federation representative — said there were six vacancies at the school, including for maths, physical education and English teachers.
Mr Catanzariti is worried about how classes will be run when school resumes next week — especially if COVID forces any existing staff into isolation.
"We know we've already got staff shortages, we know we have no casuals available at both sites," he said.
"This is really just going to make the whole situation much worse and it's not fair to the parents … and the students in our community. Their future depends on what happens throughout the year."
NSW Education said the health and wellbeing of students was its number one priority.
"Contingency plans are in place to ensure that schools can continue teaching and learning, while affording a duty of care to students," a spokeswoman said.
"The department has developed guidelines for the backfilling of staff. All school principals have received this guidance.
"More than 1,000 final year education students and retired principals have applied for interim approval to teach.
'100 per cent failure'
Mr Catanzariti said the union had raised the school's staffing issues with NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell on a number of occasions.
He said parents were withdrawing their children from the school due to the situation and continuing concerns about its model, which was spearheaded as a pilot project for the state by former Griffith-based state education minister Adrian Piccoli, who later went on to head up the Gonski Institute for Education at the University of NSW (UNSW).
The NSW government has spent more than $25 million at the school's two sites since 2019 on major building works.
"Since the merger we've lost about 200-250 students," Mr Catanzariti said.
"Parents are just thinking, 'You know what, this is an experiment I don't want to be a part of'."
UNSW report 'likely to be 'damning'
UNSW released an interim report into the school model in 2020, finding teacher satisfaction had halved and there was no leadership framework.
NSW Education has confirmed the university will release another report in June, with its findings to be considered by the department.
Mr Catanzariti is convinced it will be damning.
"I can say 100 per cent, it's been a failure," he said.
"It is a model that is not working in our context and we'd like a model that does work.
