Carpentaria Kindergarten is expected to reopen on Monday

The Department of Education confirmed a temporary educator has been appointed to the Normanton school, after a month of unsuccessfully maintaining the position.

“The Department understands that despite an active recruitment campaign, the C&K Carpentaria Kindergarten has experienced difficulties in recruiting an educator in this location,” a spokesperson said.

“This led to the unexpected closure of the service yesterday. However, C&K advised the Department of Education and Training late yesterday afternoon that an early childhood teacher has been temporarily appointed to kindergarten.”

Normanton Shire Council mayor, Jack Bawden, said a lot of families were thankful the school was reopening.

“Because we are so remote (670km east of Cairns), sourcing an educator to move here has become an issue,” Mr Bawden said.

“If the kindergarten did close it would affect a lot of local families who have young aged kids, some parents would have to stay home to care for children if there was no daycare available.”

As the sole kindergarten in Normanton, the next closest is located 70 kilometres north, at Karumba.

“There is an opportunity to utilise the Karumba kindergarten if worse comes to worse,” he said.

“A bus will soon start a run from Karumba to Normanton as some of the children go to the Christian College here.

“There is potential to run kindergarten children to Karumba before the school run to Normanton, but that is worse case scenario.”

The Carpentaria Kindergarten will reopen from Monday March 20 until the end of term (31 March).