St Aloysius' College Redevelopment Mod 1 - Student & staff numbers

My submissions is as per attachments.

This project is already grossly excessive in scale, with adverse spill-over onto the local community through parking and over-crowding of public facilities. Incidentally, it pays no rates to contribute to the community facilities it uses.
Implicitly the claim is that this capacity can be added without further adverse effects, but this is clearly wrong. The on-line students still need on-location support, and will be attending on-site at various times. It is a sneaky way of increasing capacity. Please reject this proposal and rigorously maintain the limits on student numbers.

I argue that student teacher caps should remain as enrolments not on site presence.
Condition A8 refers to student population and associated full time equivalent staff numbers of the site must not exceed 1244 and 176 respectively. A9 refers to the maximum capacity student population may exceed 1244 up to a maximum 20 additional students from time to time to allow for unanticipated fluctuations on a temporary basis. This is in effect asking for an extra 20 students by stealth as from "time to time" is tricky to assess.
By using the onsite population, rather than enrolments which are easier to measure, this onsite concept is open to manipulation and could see significant increases in school population movements such as on speech days, sports days and extra curricular events.
The School has a modification claim of "controlled technology" using specialised cameras to count total numbers of staff and students. I think it is far more practical for the community to use enrolment numbers rather than relying on a self managed policing system .
Parking is already limited in the suburb of Kirribilli especially during term time. While most use public transport there are a number of teachers and students who park near the school . Residents note that several students and teachers monitor the chalk marks on tyres and move cars around to minimise the risk of parking fines.
Kirribilli has a population of less than 4000 according to the 2016 Census with fewer than 200 school students. We already have two large schools in the area which result in a lot of cars and buses on our streets, I do not want an increase of people living outside our area clogging up our streets. We do not think it is fair for enrolments to increase in inner city schools.

I object to the project if it allows any increase at all in number of students on site in excess of the number allowed in the previous approval.
I am worried that the School, in making this application, is trying to increase numbers on site by the backdoor/by a ruse/by stealth.
I support the project if it does not involve any increase whatsoever in the number of students on site.

While on the face of it, having offsite learning does not impact the local environment, I question how this can be done without more staff. It is also a very impractical long term solution and inevitably, there will need to be further face to face teaching. There is also the issue of monitoring compliance.

St Aloysius is a very poor neighbour. Along with Loreto, the schools clog the streets, they do not engage in any way with the community while occupying increasing levels of land in the very small area of Kirribilli. There is insufficient parking for teachers and we see them moving cars during the day to circumvent the 2 hour limit for parking for non-residents. This proposal will add to the stress on Kirribilli if it adds teachers & I can't see how it cannot.

2. St Aloysius College Redevelopment Modification 1 – SSD-8669-MOD-1 Exhibit till 16 April 21 for Stage1 to amend conditions A8 & A9 re student and staff population limits, to facilitate additional enrolments for remote & off-site learning

Suggest that community members should make an individual submission by 16.4.21. On: www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/on-exhibition Project ID: SSD-8669 – then ‘Make a Submission’ button.

MOTION: Milson Precinct to make a submission to Dept. Planning OBJECTING to the amendment of the conditions A8 & A9 re school student and staff population numbers;
The numbers should not be allowed to be increased, from those already approved, and those capped numbers should be rigorously upheld and enforced.

If the numbers are allowed to be increased for remote and off-site learning, there will be occasions where all these additional students and staff will be present on campus, EG speech days. The limit to student numbers was a key concern for the community, and this limit should be maintained.

Milson Precinct request NSC also object to these amendments of the conditions A8 & A9, on behalf of the community.

Moved: TB Seconded: RV Voting: Unanimous
Milson Precinct meeting held Thursday, 8 April, 2021

Adjusting numbers of attendees by A8 and A9 will create even more havoc in the area in terms of car numbers and parking.? Students now use Bradfield Park, maintained by rate payers , a public space which should be for public use, not organised school sports.
The growth in student and teacher numbers must be capped, or reduced, now
Tony and Pauline Durant

I have lived in Kirribilli for 17 years. For most of this period, I have depended on street parking. While it is pleasant to have the energy of students in Kirribilli, It is absolutely impractical and greedy for St.Aloysius College to consider increasing the numbers of its students and teachers without a thought to how this impacts on the Kirribilli neighbourhood. There must be parking built into the proposal for the additional numbers without straining the street parking that is there for Kirribilli residents. It is very difficult as it stands right now, let alone with additional teachers and students.

St. Aloysius School’s student and staff population is already at maximum capacity for the sites in Kirribilli; there are not sufficient parking spaces provided for the current staff population on site, - not even meeting the minimum standards required; we in the community, note the more than 50 teachers going out multiple times a day, to move their cars around on our streets, to avoid the parking fines, using a very finite resource, taking parking spaces from residents who do not have off-street parking.

They are demolishing a building, and building a new building over that site, as well as an infill building over the only open courtyard space on the main campus (middle school - Yrs 7-10), which has the maximum student population. They are NOT providing any off street parking for teachers with this redevelopment, and providing rooftop open space for the boys, which will negatively impact upon the neighbours, with increased noise at this elevated level, as well as obstruction of their iconic views to the Sydney Harbour, Opera House and Bridge.

It is felt that the school is currently built from footpath to footpath, with no softening of structures via landscaping at all, especially with this building that is to be redeveloped. Due to the large numbers of students and lack of open space, the students utilise Bradfield Park several times a day, for their outdoor enjoyment. Again, this finite resource is maintained by the rate paying community, which does not include the school, who are exempt from rates.

The community is supportive of the schools in our area, via these mechanisms, but we think that the student population and staff numbers are already at a maximum level, for comfort within the community. This was expressed to the North Sydney Planning Panel at the time, in 2019. Therefore, the current caps were placed on the student and staff numbers, with a potential 20 additional for ‘fluctuations’ from time to time, under Conditions A8 & A9.

The request to modify these conditions should be REFUSED outright. If these conditions are altered, I believe that there will be further requests to increase student and staff numbers on site, at some time in the future. This will then have a negative impact on both the students’ experience and the community’s.

These student and teacher population numbers were put in place for a reason, and therefore, should be rigorously adhered to.

We appreciate that the Covid environment of 2020, had many students learning remotely, for periods of time, with additional strain on the teachers, the parents as well as many students, most of whom prefer to be with their mates back in the classroom, for the much needed social interactions. Remote learning disadvantages lower socio economic groups, and relies on economic privilege to work - i.e. high speed internet, individual laptops and devices etc. We appreciate that boarding schools, with students from other countries, may still be remotely learning from their home country, due to closed international boarders. This does not apply to this school, as there are no boarding facilities on this site.

We can not envision a situation, where the school would need to provide ‘remote or off-site’ learning to any increased numbers of students, long term. If that was to happen, and it was to be some (say 3) days at school and other (2) days learning from home, then at many times throughout the school year, all students and teachers would come together in the same site space for things like sports / athletics days, speech days, assemblies. Then the student numbers would be in breach of the caps placed on this school site.

The community could not cope with the additional through traffic within Kirribilli, of parents in cars dropping off or collecting students for sports, music and other extracurricular activities, teachers in cars without on-site parking, the numbers of students congregating in Jeffreys St., under the bridge for buses, or pushing through the village to the train station.

Please ensure that these modifications to student and staff population numbers via Conditions A8 & A9, for ‘off-site and remote learning’ are NOT APPROVED.
Thanking you.

We have attached our submission.

See attachment.

Please refer attachments that have been lodged by my partner, Wayne Rees. I wholeheatedly support and endorse these views and call on NSW Planning to reject St Aloysius College Modification application in its entirety.

Whilst we applaud the school in its intention to incorporate off site learning we strenuously object to any increase in the total number of students and teachers. These numbers were capped for very good reasons, protecting the environment of the school and the community, because of impacts through:

parking,
Increased traffic flows,
use of ratepayer funded facilities such as neighbourhood parks which the school takes over for sporting activities,
organised sport on weekends,
on site meetings,
assemblies and other school-related events,
the heavily built environment of the schools

As the school is suggesting a total increase in numbers of students and teachers, there is nothing to prevent these numbers being made permanent over time and nothing to prevent increases in numbers of students and teachers congregating on campus for schooling a d/or school related events, putting the school in breach of its total agreed numbers. Kirribilli is a small, densely populated suburb with narrow streets already hosting three major school communities. The area simply will not cope with any increase in numbers.

Please refuse this application.

Objection is made to the proposed changes to approved conditions A 8 & A9.
Background
It is understood the purpose of the changes is to allow for additional students, estimated at about 100, to be taught off the Site remotely using the latest technologies. These additional students and additional teachers are in addition to the nos presently stated in conditions A 8 & A 9.
Remote teaching was done during the pandemic where some schools although closed, continued to teach remotely by Zoom or using other technologies.
As proposed, no limit is placed on the no’s. of additional students and their teachers that can be taught remotely, nor is there any limitation placed on their use of any or all of the Schools facilities. Nor is any indication given as to where these ‘remote’ students might live. The present estimate of 100 could increase to 300/500 or more, given that in the next 2/5 years it’s estimated the state’s school population is going to dramatically increase, and this is bound to have a flow on effects to all schools particularly in the Sydney area.
The School is at its max capacity both in terms of no’s and the use of its facilities by those no’s, which is why the present DA was approved in the way it was.
Any additional students and any additional teachers can’t be accommodated on site, either attending/teaching, or separately to use the schools’ facilities. Already for example experience from many neighbours has suggested many additional cars perhaps up to about 30 are presently being parked (notwithstanding existing onsite parking areas) in the surrounding streets by teachers, where councils parking figures show that almost all Kirribilli streets are 85% to 90% plus parked out every day including weekends.
If you are minded to approve the proposed changes, then my submission is that the additional words in italics must be in inserted in A 8 & A9 and the additional condition A 9A must be added, so as to ensure both the intent of what’s proposed and compliance with it, and with the intent of the previously approved DA conditions.
Michel Reymond
16 April 2021
Proposed change to existing conditions
A 8 The student population and associated full time equivalent staff numbers physically attending the Site at any time must not exceed 1244 and 176 respectively.
A 9 Notwithstanding condition A 8, the maximum student population physically attending the Site at any time may exceed 1244 by up to a maximum of 20 additional students from time to time, to allow for unanticipated fluctuations on a temporary basis.

DRAFT additional condition

A 9A Should the student population/staff numbers increase beyond the numbers specified in conditions A 8 & A 9 by being educated off the Site remotely via audio -visual links or other suitable internet connections, then the School must on an annual basis provide to the consent authority a list of the additional students, and their teachers, together with such other details as may reasonably be required to demonstrate compliance with conditions A 8 & A 9 including such matters that the additional students and their teachers were at all times off the Site.
(Reason: to ensure compliance with conditions A 8 & 9)

Comment from North Sydney Council; Council raises no objection to the changes in principle as these changes are reflective of a broad move toward more flexible working (schooling) arrangements across the board during and after Covid. It is noted that the technological and organisational mechanisms are acknowledged to work well and organisations have generally adapted to increased flexibility in a positive manner. One concern that should be reflected in any amended approval is that certain activities may call for influxes of students (and visitors) greater than the 20 students allowed. Conditions should be put in place which prevent a contravention of the limits on student/ staff numbers on a regular basis. Mechanisms should also be in place to ensure ongoing monitoring & reporting of on campus population numbers.

Yours,
Gavin McConnell
Executive Planning Advisor

See attachment

Objection to increase in numbers to St Aloysius buildings.
We object to there being any increase in numbers due to the already impossible traffic situation in Kirribilli , with consideration of parking issues and traffic flows.
Further, the schools already use large tracts of public land at no cost to them. Increased numbers will exacerbate this problem.
Yours faithfully