ALL Saints’ College will come under independent ownership from 2017 following an eight-month search for a buyer.
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All Saints’ was put on the market in April after the NSW Supreme Court ruled it should be sold to help pay a Bathurst Anglican Diocese debt to the Commonwealth Bank.
The debt was estimated to be up to $40 million with much of it a result of the diocese’s failed investment in the Orange and Macquarie Anglican Grammar Schools.
Both of those schools were sold in 2013 but the proceeds did not cover the full debt to the bank.
All Saints’ head of college Steven O’Connor said the sale of the school would see it become a fully independent school but retain its links to the Anglican Church.
Mr O’Connor said it was still too early to make “detailed comment” on the sale but confirmed the college would continue operating as a co-educational school from pre-kinder to Year 12; the college would remain a boarding school; the college chaplain would continue to be licensed by the Bishop of Bathurst Ian Palmer; the school would not be owned or controlled by any church organisation; and the school’s name would not change.
“Today’s announcement is the commencement of a bright new future for the college,” Mr O’Connor said.
“It represents the best possible outcome for all stakeholders, and will see minimal changes to the day-to-day operations of the college.”
Bishop Palmer said the diocese’s financial position meant it could not offer All Saints’ the future it deserved.
“I welcome that it will continue as a fully independent college in the Anglican tradition,” Bishop Palmer said.
“This is a good outcome for the students, staff and parents of the college.
“It will set the college on a pathway that will enhance its status as the leading educational institution in the Central West in a way that the diocese does not have the resources to do.”
The search for a buyer was facilitated by consulting firm Resolve through an expression of interest process.
The school expects the sale to be finalised by the start of Term 2 in 2017.
Confirmation of the All Saints’ sale comes just a week after the school’s main local rival, The Scots School, launched an aggressive bid to boost its student numbers.
Scots has announced an average fee reduction of 30 per cent to all students from the start of next year.