22 July, 2019
Dear Parents and Carers,
Hillcrest Christian College has established itself as a leading Christian school and actions that have the potential to destabilise our community also have the potential to affect our students and distract from teaching and learning. It is our priority to ensure that the students who come to the College each day are catered for in the best possible way and are not adversely affected by these events. Fifteen hundred students arrive at Hillcrest Christian College each morning to continue their learning experiences. They must be at the forefront of our minds in all that we do.
On Friday the College set up a series of Parent Forums to occur over the next two weeks. These were to provide parents with an opportunity to ask questions and receive factual information regarding the current digital and social media activity.
I have been reliably informed that people are planning to send large groups to the parent information sessions, ignoring the parameters that were established when they were advertised last week. I also understand that the media have been alerted to the proposed parent information sessions by this group. This is of course completely contrary to the intention of the sessions which were intended to give people the opportunity to ask questions in a non-threatening, small group setting.
I am concerned that this group wishes to disrupt the sessions promoting division within the College community. This behaviour is not helping to restore community, but is likely to create further division. It also has the potential to increase the community stress that we are all suffering.
We offered these sessions to hear from parents and seek to answer their questions in a transparent and community focused manner. These sessions were planned so that the Executive Head of College, members of the Board and members of the Executive Team would be able to meet parents and caregivers in a small group format to discuss the current issues that our community have been questioning.
This objective has been compromised by the intentions of a small group who are making claims about the College in a negative and divisive manner that is contrary to the sense of community that is such an important part of Hillcrest. It is therefore with regret that we will have to postpone the planned parent information sessions.
As an organisation, we must be proactive in protecting the reputation of our school to damage by negative claims being made through the media. We encourage due process and the legitimate channel of the Board.
How we handle our differences is a key component of how we will move forward, but above all else, Hillcrest Christian College and our community must be protected.
Knowing that people are still seeking answers, the Board will be providing a detailed update in the next few days that will provide responses to questions from the P&F page, emails that have been received and other sources.
We will release new Parent Information dates when we feel these can be run with integrity for current members of our community who wish to attend.
Yours in Christ,
Jeff Davis
Executive Head of College