They claim the school has been plagued by resignations and stress-related leave as the school makes the difficult transition to a single campus education model.
Ms Ryan said teachers were being forced to mind more than one class and in one instance a school nurse was used as a babysitter.
“I understand 82 teachers have left the school this year and 12 teachers are on stress leave,” she said.
“The Shepparton community deserves better than this, Shepparton students were promised a first-class education but all they are getting is more barriers.”
Parent Melanie Jones, who has students in Years 10 and 12 at the Wanganui Campus said she was concerned about the impact on their education.
“My daughter hasn’t had a regular teacher for one particular class and has had 39 substitute teachers over the eight weeks of term 1,” she said.
“I am really concerned her education is suffering because of that shortage, I want to see teacher morale improve.”
Melanie’s mother Colleen Jones has three grandchildren attending the school.
“All of them have said the same thing, that there are often classes with no teachers.”
An Employee Assistance Program is in place at the school and following recent violence between groups of students significant additional staffing resources have been deployed including teaching staff, casual relief teachers, education support staff and multicultural aides.
Ms Ryan said she had no comparative numbers on absenteeism from the four original schools but the anecdotal evidence from teachers was that stress levels were greater than they had ever experienced.
“The government has sent a flying squad of psychologists to the school who are based here three days a week for teachers, that’s not normal,” she said.
“The stress leave and exodus of teachers is higher than normal.”
Staff absence is due to a range of personal and professional reasons, including professional learning, illness, and caring responsibilities. In 2015 a Monash University study commissioned by the Australian Education Union found 55 per cent of teachers experienced a stress or mental health-related illness in the previous year.
Education Minister James Merlino said in a statement secondary schools experienced declining enrolments for a decade and poor educational outcomes for much longer than that.
“Under the Shepparton Education Plan, we are delivering unprecedented investment in Greater Shepparton secondary education to undertake transformational change to reverse those trends,” he said.
“We always knew it would be challenging, but this is about delivering the school facilities every student in Shepparton needs to excel.
“I want the staff to feel supported in every way possible. It is why I have been very clear with my department that every single available support should be provided to the school.”
Ms Ryan reiterated that parents should have choice in public education in Shepparton.
31°C