Last month, Berengarra - an independent school for about 50 teenagers with social and behavioural difficulties - met the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in a bid to buy the Notting Hill site.

The school was informed the site was worth about $3million and that Berengarra's case did not constitute "exceptional circumstances".

Berengarra principal Mark Heuston said that if the Glen Waverley school's closure was not seen as an "exceptional circumstance", he was not sure what did.

"The fact that Berengarra School is a significant program that has worked with thousands of young people over the last 32 years, successfully turning their lives around, should not go unnoticed."

The school secured a five-year lease earlier this year to move to the former Monash Secondary College site, which neighbours the former primary school in Notting Hill.

However, the school, which turned away students because it had no room, was unable to find a guarantor to secure the bank loan.

The DEECD has offered to terminate the lease without penalty.

Since then, the school has secured a 12-month extension of its lease at its Glen Waverley site, but its future post-2009 remains uncertain.

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development said the financial management of non-government schools, including Berengarra, was the responsibility of the school and the relevant non-government sector authority.

"The Victorian Government provides recurrent and specific purpose funding to assist all non-government schools, including Berengarra, meet operational costs and to support students with special needs," he said.

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