By JASON TURNER
FOR a while, it looked like Bangholme’s Cornish College was set to face a fate similar to other struggling independent colleges — but determination from the school community brought it back from the brink.
Almost two years ago, the former St Leonard’s College campus looked certain to close after it was threatened with liquidation. But instead of following the path of Mowbrey or Acacia colleges in Melbourne’s west and north, local families not only saved the campus but created a whole new entity.
‘‘It [the future] is exceptionally bright,’’ principal Kerry Bolger said, as the school prepared to start its new year this Friday.
In early 2011, St Leonard’s declared its Bangholme campus was not financially viable. Mr Bolger said the announcement was a shock, and without the wider community and parents banding together the school would not exist today.
One parent, and current school council vice-chairman Trevor Gurr, said some parents were crying when they heard the news.
He said it was by coincidence he was already meeting other parents on the same night and within days they organised a meeting to gauge how passionate fellow parents were in saving their children’s campus.
After talking with school staff, including Mr Bolger, Mr Gurr got together almost 50 people to help devise a plan to keep the campus alive.
After moves to buy the Patterson River site from St Leonard’s were rejected twice by the school council, the Uniting Church stepped in to help with the negotiations.
Mr Gurr believed that the church could see “what a wonderful asset was being lost’’ but maintained that the parents were the main reason why the school attracted the help that prevented its closure.
“They were absolutely fabulous people to be involved with,” he said.
Mr Gurr — who has two children at the school — believed the school had a “buoyant” future and would not risk increasing fees on expensive facilities ‘‘that other private schools are well known for’’.
