BENDIGO NORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL MERGER
22nd September 2009
Posted by Admin on 16/07/2009 at 04:19 PM in LATEST NEWS / Bendigo
By ANTHONY RADFORD
VICTORIAN Shadow Education Minister Martin Dixon met with disaffected Bendigo North Primary School parents this week as they continued the fight against the school's closure.
The Bendigo Weekly revealed earlier this year the school was one of three set down for a merger to create a single super school at Comet Hill.
The BNPS council initially voted against the merger, but a second vote saw the school principal vote for the first time, changing the outcome.
While coy about the details, Mr Dixon and Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell confirmed the meeting.
"I am here to visit the Bendigo Senior Secondary College and I will be visiting Catholic College Bendigo and meeting with some parents who have been affected by mergers in this area," Mr Dixon said.
"Parents speak to us confidentially. They are the ones wearing the great pressure."
Ms Lovell was initially coy about revealing any details of the pair's meeting with parents.
"We need to keep that confidential. Parents have approached us and they requested no media at those meetings," she said.
When asked if they would be speaking to parents from BNPS, Ms Lovell said: "We are meeting with some people from the North Bendigo community, yes."
Mr Dixon also toured BSSC with principal Dale Pearce.
Mr Dixon threw the Liberal Party's support behind the BSSC school council's call for the delivery of nine years of funding promises to the school.
The Weekly revealed in June the benefits of the $70 million Bendigo Education Plan were in danger of being compromised by almost a decade of undelivered funding promises to the city's only public VCE school.
The state government first promised funding to help the school cope in 2000, with $1.5 million earmarked to get rid of the school's 25 portables dating back to the 1950s.
That money has yet to be delivered and all the portables are still there.
While the school is not falling into disrepair, it is not suitable for the type of 21st century education the Bendigo Education Plan delivers to the four new year seven-to-10 schools across the city.
Mr Dixon said the revised masterplan highlighted $15 million worth of works needed.
"BSSC school council has expressed concerns to the government there are nine years of promises that haven't been delivered on upgrades to this school," he said.
"We are very aware of the school council's position and we certainly back the school council's drive and demand the promises that were made are actually delivered.
"This school sorely needs some improved facilities. They do a great job, within what they have but many of the buildings just don't stand up to 21st-century education.
"The Bendigo Education Plan is 21st century design and it is meeting the needs of 21st-century education.
"Those students are coming here and in some cases they are walking into 19th-century facilities and that does effect their learning."
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Martin Dixon MP
State Member for Nepean
Shop 1, McCrae Plaza
Cnr Lonsdale Street and Pt Nepean Road
McCRAE VIC 3938
Phone: (61) 3 5986 6661
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Email: martin.dixon@parliament.vic.gov.au