PARENT pressure has forced Frankston councillors to reconsider council’s policy on kindergartens enrolments in the municipality.
Council has now decided to include a “proximity clause” in its enrolments system after widespread anger from parents who believed council had ignored community feedback.
A packed public gallery of parents at last Monday’s public council meeting made their views clear about flaws in council’s kindergartens enrolments system.
Langwarrin mum Jodie Forster was one of many who accused councillors of losing touch with the community.
“As councillors you are elected to be the voice of the community and you are supposed to stand up for what’s right,” she said.
Councillors decided to adjourn last week’s council meeting and deliberated behind closed doors before deciding to include a proximity clause and a sibling clause in the enrolments system.
A proximity clause means the distance between a family home and an oversubscribed kindergarten will be taken into account.
A siblings clause means children with older brothers or sisters at a popular kindergarten will also be given priority.
Cr Darrel Taylor said “there will be winners and losers” from the proximity clause and the sibling clause but the community had made it clear this is preferable to a random ballot system for oversubscribed kindergartens.
Councillors effectively overruled advice given by a steering committee that recommended the existing ballots system should continue, noting 97 per cent of children were accepted to a family’s first choice of kindergarten.
