The matter will next be heard in mid-May.
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Parents at the school are also considering commencing a separate class action in the Federal Court in relation to alleged “misleading and deceptive conduct” by Newington’s council.
Despite the prospect of multiple legal challenges – and months of bitter public feuding between alumni over the move – the school is forging ahead with $110 million in major building upgrades ahead of the co-ed transition.
Plans released on the NSW major planning portal show the school is proposing a new four-storey teaching and learning building, upgrades to its Centenary Hall and a new performing arts theatre, multipurpose gallery, sports courts and basement parking.
“This proposal will also allow an increase in its students and staff, commensurate with Newington’s transition to a fully co-educational school by 2033,” a scoping report by Urbis said.
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“The consequences of not carrying out the proposed alterations and additions at Newington College would result in the school not being able to best support the continuation of its current value proposition and sustain its future co-educational vision.”
The college, which charges $45,000 a year is one of multiple high-fee Sydney schools planning major infrastructure upgrades in the next decade.
In a letter to parents last week, Newington’s chief operating officer, Ross Xenos, said he hoped legal representatives from all parties could determine how the legal case can proceed quickly and efficiently.
“In addition to these proceedings, our representatives have approached the court separately asking the court to provide advice that the college is justified in defending these proceedings insofar as they relate to the differing views of the meaning of the term youth in the 1873 deed of indenture,” Xenos said.
“We again affirm that the college’s principal focus in 2025 is and will be our students, and they continue to have the full attention of our educational leadership and teaching staff.”
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