By Michael Newhouse
STAFF and students from Keilor Downs Secondary College are gearing up for a firefight with the Department of Education and Training, after the department decided not to replace senior school classrooms and offices destroyed by arsonists last month.
Members of the school community last week said they planned to fight the department’s decision not to replace the portable classroom block, which housed the year 12 study area and teacher offices, even hinting at possible protests outside State Parliament if the issue were not resolved.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education and Training informed the school that the building would not be replaced, saying the school was over-allocated and had more than enough classrooms to cater for its 1455 students.
The college’s school council met last week to discuss the implications for staff and students.
School council president Norm Clyne told Star last week, “If something doesn’t get resolved, I guarantee it will go as far as we can possibly take it, because there’s no way known we’re going to sit back and take it. If cleaners can go and sit on the steps of Parliament with buckets, then students and parents can go and sit on the steps with books,” he said.
Since the blaze the year 12 students have been temporarily using the school library as a study area, causing other students to work around the senior school students.
The school’s principal, Peter Starford, told Star last week that if the building is not replaced, the Year 12 students will be moved into another classroom, which will mean that other students have to take classes in specialist rooms such as woodwork or metalwork rooms.
He said he was amazed at the department’s decision, saying that before the fire the department gave no indication the school had been allocated more classrooms than it needed.
“Many of the parents on the school council can’t understand how we had a room (that was then not replaced). No one was talking about over-entitlement, no one was talking about taking it away, but in between one day and the next it suddenly becomes defined as excess to our needs,” Mr Starford said.
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“I was shocked because we had no reason to believe, prior to this, that the building would not be replaced,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the department told Star that after the fire the department had reviewed the school’s building and classroom space compared with enrolment.
“The department found that even without the relocatable building lost in the fire, the school has enough classrooms to cater for the number of students,” she said.
The spokeswoman would not answer questions regarding why the school was not informed about any over-allocation of classrooms before to the fire.
Politicians from across the political spectrum have rallied around to support the school. Western Metropolitan Green MLC Colleen Hartland raised the issue in Parliament earlier this month, and Labor and Liberal MPs were expected to visit the school last week to discuss the issue.
