‘Burra school budget hopes

EASTERN Victoria Region MLC Melina Bath has called on the State Government to fund stage two of the rebuild of Korumburra Secondary College in today’s State Budget.

Speaking in Parliament on April 13, Ms Bath said the students were currently being taught in dilapidated classrooms that no longer met the needs of today’s curriculum.

“The staff at Korumburra do a fantastic job in providing quality education to their students however the conditions they have to teach in do not provide the best learning environment,” she said.

“Whilst having dedicated staff is very important, the environment in which the students and the staff learn is detracted from by having 80 year old buildings with classrooms that leak and without modern technology.”

Ms Bath said Education Minister James Merlino had visited the school and witnessed first-hand how desperately a rebuilt was needed, however there was still no indication the government was committed to providing funding in the budget.

Fellow Nationals MP, Gippsland South MLA, Danny O’Brien echoed Ms Bath’s comments.

“The Nationals in government provided $5.6 million to plan and build stage one of the upgrade, and made a pre-election commitment of $9 million to complete the rebuild,” he said.

“Tenders will be let for stage one soon, but it would be ideal to have stage two funding in place as well.”

Ms Bath said it was important the funding be allocated in this budget, as not only did the school provide an education for students in Korumburra, but was also attended by students from Loch, Nyora, Poowong and surrounding areas.

“This town is the hub for education for those growing towns and our local families need to be assured that their children will have access to great facilities now and into the future,” she said.
A spokesperson for Mr Merlino said Korumburra Secondary College was one of more than 1500 Victorian schools that needs to be considered when making decisions on school infrastructure funding in the budget.
“The government is currently working with Korumburra Secondary College on delivering it’s stage one building project,” he said.
“In the 2015-16 Budget the Andrews Labor Government delivered the single biggest boost to education funding in Victoria’s history, including over $730 million to build new schools, upgrade existing schools and buy land for future demand.”
The Wonthaggi Secondary College community is also hoping for funding for a new education precinct – including a new senior campus – in today’s budget.

Standing firm: The Nationals’ Gippsland South MLA Danny O’Brien and Eastern Victoria Region MLC Melina Bath with petitions signed by the community calling on the State Government to allocate funds to complete the rebuild of Korumburra Secondary College.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Apr 27 2016. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry