My call from God to Christian schools (Part 6)
The govt VRQA were so opposed to anything biblical that it was hard to see how River City Christian School (RCCC), Echuca, was going to get out of the no-creation dilemma. One thing is clear: if the previous principal had been still running the school, it would never have remained open by the start of 2009. I had set up all relevant policies, and had avoided a legal disaster over the underhand funding set in place when I had arrived as principal at RCCC. The requirements listed by the Registered Schools Board a few years before (and never implemented) were now largely dealt with. But the creation issue remained a big headache. The VRQA were certain that they would shut us down on this issue alone. In fact, in March 2009 they gave us an ultimatum: remove the creation component of your science curriculum and we may consider permitting your continuing registration as a school.

In November 2008 the school board chair and I had attended a meeting with the VRQA in Melbourne. There was a lot of disagreement between them and us over the one single issue: creation content in our science course. So I asked the VRQA chair: If, then, you do not accept our science curriculum, which school’s curriculum would you accept? She said: The science curriculum of Waverley Christian College. So when I returned to RCCC the next day, I made contact with Waverley Christian College to ask them if they would make their science curriculum available for us to look at. They agreed. We also arranged for our science teacher to go to Waverley for a week in February 2009 to see how it worked in practice. It looked workable, and it did happen to accept some creation content. (I wondered if the VRQA actually knew this?) Plans were made to implement the Waverley curriculum as soon as possible in 2009. Meanwhile, before we could set up the Waverley science curriculum, the VRQA sent us an ultimatum: to drop creation from our curriculum or be closed down in 30 days. We told them that we were still in the process of implementing an alternative curriculum. They then came to re-assess us in Term 2 and, upon noting that we still had a creation component in our science curriculum, informed us that they would refuse our re-registration to operate as a school in Victoria. I then informed them that the science curriculum we were now using was the Waverley College curriculum as recommended by the VRQA Chair in November 2008. That actually stopped them in their tracks and they said that they would check this out and get back to me. When they did get back, we had passed the assessment and had been granted provisional registration to operate. It was clear that we had won this round.

That necessary certificate that gave the school legal right to operate as a school was missing when I started at RCCC. No-one seemed to know what it was, and no-one recalled seeing such a document. Then (in maybe late 2008) one of the board members said he’d been given (by the previous principal) a box of papers to be burnt or otherwise disposed of. He’d stored this cardboard box under his house. He now brought it in to see if there were any documents there that we might need. And that necessary certificate permitting our operation as a school was in that box. Fortunately, in spite of the previous principal’s efforts to get rid of it, we were able to frame it and hang it on the office wall. We were now legally permitted to operate a school on that site! In fact, it is clear that if the previous principal had stayed on longer, the school most likely would not have survived. He apparently didn’t have much idea of running a school properly and should never have been appointed principal in the first place. (I suppose they were desperate for someone to employ!) I had the experience of many school reviews in previous schools and knew a lot about what was required to pass an assessment. I had set about doing what was needed from the time I started at RCCC and in my three years managed to bring the school back from disaster. But it came at a cost to my health; I needed a break to recover from my stress-related health problems. And the school enrolment numbers did not slide any further while I was there, in spite of no longer being able to count Yr 11&12 students in the figures.

While there we had the opportunity to have a new science building built using a govt grant for such buildings. Some on the school board wanted a local builder to build it, rather than accepting the builder the govt had chosen for the task. A school meeting was held and by a narrow margin it was decided that the govt-approved builder should do it. However, I was constantly harassed and pestered by the board chairman, even in my own time, including a holiday break. I would get phone calls over and over to get me to change my mind. Then the board chairman started harassing the woman who had made the application in the first place. It was never expected that her application would get us something but when it did the school board wanted to control it (even though the school board had rejected putting in the application in the first place). The board chairman harassment was so intense that, due to my stress problems, I was not able to withstand, and I signed the request to use a local builder. The project was delayed for a few weeks while this was considered, and then we were told that by then the last half dozen building grants had been cancelled due to funds running out. We missed out because of that harassment! I often think what the school could have had if only the board chair hadn’t bullied me into submission. Still, he has to wear that, not me!

I was desperately wanting a break to recuperate and in the last few months of 2009 I took a few afternoons off due to my stress levels. I notified the board that I would resign at the end of 2009. I would have liked to have stayed longer but needed some time off to regain my health. I think if they’d wanted me to continue, then perhaps a paid sabbatical might have worked, or at least my house rent paid. I couldn’t afford to pay money on rental when not working, so I’d have to move away from Echuca.

In June 2011 the RCCC council chairman contacted me requesting that I consider taking a secondary teaching position for 2012. I refused on the basis that (a) I would need rental once again, (b) my wife would have to stay home this time, and (c) they should have kept me on while I was still living there. I didn’t need the funds anyway. Once I left Echuca, I was never coming back!

If only the school board had recognised my stress levels and had acted to offer support while I was working so hard tov save their school from closure. I remember going to a school board meeting in early 2009 and telling them that I had assessed my effectiveness as principal and was not performing as well as I should be now because of my stress levels. Unbelievably the general mood seemed to be that if I thought I need to improve, then I should try harder. I don’t think they understood at all!

This was the last teaching job I’d take on. God didn’t open any more doors after that, and I had ample funds to permit me to just stay at home, and consider that my retirement began for me at the age of 60. We have made many acquaintances over the years at Benalla, Alice Springs and Echuca, and keep some communications going even now. God has been good to us; we lack for nothing in spite of no longer having our farm which was the price we had to pay for my teaching ministry. There’s always a cost in ministry. If there is no cost, then there’s probably no victory either. I am satisfied that every cost involved with all my travels has been worth it. I have followed where God has called and do not regret my teaching ministry in spite of leaving much comfort and financial ease behind.

Finally, it was an “all or nothing” desire that led me to go into ministry. I reasoned that if God couldn’t have all of me, then I would always be compromising in having to choose those things of the world I would accept rather than condemn. I didn’t want one foot in the world and the other in ministry. It had to be all or nothing!