The merger of two public high schools in southern New South Wales has led to reputational damage and low staff wellbeing, a new report has found.
A University of New South Wales report has made 14 recommendations to the Department of Education after the Griffith and Wade High Schools were merged to form Murrumbidgee Regional High School in 2019.
Both campuses are at Griffith, six hours west of Sydney, and the merger was despite them being kilometres apart.
The merger was first announced in 2017, and almost five years later the report found there was still not an equivalent educational program across the two sites.
The report concluded the model should not be used in further projects if the goal was to have a cohesive school culture.
However, it also said it was difficult to make a full assessment of the school's success until 2024, when students who arrived in Year 7 would graduate.
"That said, the 'one school – two sites' model has created significant inefficiencies and duplication," the report said.
The Department of Education has defended merging the schools.
"Having one secondary public education provision that's not competing with each other but supporting and working with each other, is a very strong development for our school community," the Department's Murat Dizdar said.
Reputational damage
Staff and parents have previously raised issues about the school merger, reporting low staff morale and cases of students changing schools.
Today's report found "considerable reputational damage" had been caused to secondary education in Griffith.
"This is most evident in the declining transition of public primary school enrolments into Murrumbidgee Regional High School and the rise in enrolments for immediate competitor schools," the report said.
"This requires significant attention and resourcing to address before it escalates any further."
Low staff morale
It also found staff wellbeing was below national benchmarks, despite work satisfaction increasing.
Mr Dizdar said the department "could have been better" in engaging the community leading up to the merger.
"We could have been better and stronger around the communication of the intent and the directions of the model," he said.
The consolidation of schools was put in place to improve outcomes for students, and the report found there were some positive trends in student outcomes.
"Year 7-9 growth data from 2021 NAPLAN were at or above state averages in reading and numeracy, indicating a positive trend for student outcomes," it said.
