Members of the Armidale High School community discussed their grave concerns at a recent meeting at the possibility of areas of the school being rezoned as industrial under a plan being considered by Armidale Dumaresq Council.
“Concern was expressed at the meeting that, while the Council and its officials may have been following process, the fact that the State Government Department of Education, rather than members of the local community, had been consulted smacked of paternalism,” said Secretary of the Armidale High School P & C Elizabeth O’Hara.
“An apparent lack of transparency in the whole process was also the cause of comment.”
Speakers at the meeting pointed to the fact that one of the areas of the school proposed for rezoning as industrial is, in fact, a working farm. Agriculture has been a focus of the school since its inception in 1921 with many students finding employment in this area. The other is the Wetlands which is part of on-going revitalisation.
Speakers pointed to the ‘Evocity’ vision of Armidale which would be challenged by a belt of industrial activity along the major thoroughfare and to the detrimental effects the establishment of an industrial precinct adjacent to school grounds would have on the learning environment of students.
The meeting determined to write a submission to Council; to write to the Department of Education and the State Government demanding that its concerns be taken seriously.
The meeting unanimously passed a motion that ‘members of the Armidale High School community deplore any suggestion that parcels of School land be rezoned as industrial.’
