The Catholic Schools Office says its plans to turn St Francis Xavier's College into a comprehensive year 7 to 12 school have been "met with a high degree of disappointment and concern".
The Maitland-Newcastle diocese announced in May that SFX would no longer be a senior college for year 11 and 12 students, starting in 2024, and St Pius High School at Adamstown and San Clemente High School at Mayfield would expand to include Higher School Certificate students.
The CSO said it had based the decision on research that a "continuous educational experience from years 7 to 12, with relatively smaller year 12 cohorts, produces, on balance, better long-term educational, spiritual and social outcomes for students".
The diocese has completed one round of consultation with staff, students and parents on how the changes will be implemented.
It is holding a second series of staff briefings at the three schools this week and will publish an implementation plan at the end of the year.
The CSO sent parents an email update on Tuesday on the feedback it had received.
"Whilst broadly, the addition of Years 11 and 12 at St Pius and San Clemente were warmly welcomed by their respective communities. The conversion of St Francis Xavier's from a Senior College to a comprehensive Years 7-12 school was met with a high degree of disappointment and concern," the email says.
The email lists the "overarching questions and challenges" to be addressed in subsequent consultation.
These "key themes" included subject choices, teaching quality, teacher recruitment and retention, job security, disruption due to capital works and lack of space at SFX and San Clemente.
The Newcastle Herald reported in June that some teaching staff were angry at what they perceived to be a lack of consultation before the CSO decided to change the schools' intakes.
CSO director Gerard Mowbray, who retires in December, said at the time that the diocese had received a "large volume of positive feedback" on its plans.
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