Mandurah mums angry over boundary intake area for new local college

A GROUP of Mandurah mothers are angry the new Coastal Lakes College will be located outside the local school intake area from where they live.

The Department of Education released the boundary intake for the college last week.

Meadow Springs mother of two Kate Caldwell had envisioned her son Kyle would attend Year 7 at the new college in 2019.

Now she has been left in limbo on where to send him.

“I’m stressed and angry,” she said.

“We had to put in our child’s name to get an enrolment package but it doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to be successful with enrolment.”

Mrs Caldwell said she lived just five minutes away from the new college but because her home was not located within the local intake area, there was no guarantee of her son’s enrolment success.

“After all this time thinking that’s where my children are going to go, now I’m not sure,” she said.

Meadow Springs mother Corina Angel-Dzubiel also planned on sending her daughter Sophia to the new college but to her dismay, is also not within the local intake area.

Ms Angel-Dzubiel said her daughter will attend the school regardless, even if she’s forced to move within the intake zone.

“The zoning cuts off at Meadow Springs Drive, leaving out a handful of families whose children should have been included in the intake area because Meadow Springs is within 3.5km to the high school,” she said.

“Golden Bay, which is part of the intake is 4.4 km away, is a suburb of Rockingham not Mandurah; it makes no sense.

Mandurah MLA David Templeman told the Coastal Times a number of parents had contacted him expressing concerns about the college boundaries.

“I understand their concerns and have expressed these to the Minister for Education,” he said.

An Education Department spokeswoman said if space was available, and after all local area intake students who wished to enrol have done so, the principal would consider out of local intake area applications.