By ALESHA CAPONE
A HIGH-ACHIEVING Sunshine school deserves an urgent cash injection to upgrade its facilities, according to a Western Suburbs MP.
Liberal Western Metropolitan Region MP Bernie Finn said he hoped more funding would soon be directed towards Sunshine Secondary College’s Lachlan St campus in West Sunshine.
He said the State Government had given more than $80 million to upgrade and build schools in the West since being elected, but he hoped Sunshine Secondary College would receive a significant boost in the upcoming budget.
While the Opposition was in power before the last election, they proposed rebuilding the college to locate all its campuses at one site, but this has never occurred.
Mr Finn said while visiting the school in 2011 he was “shocked” after seeing a sagging roof, dangerous floor coverings and cracked walls.
He said despite this, the school has achieved strong academic results and helped turn around the lives of many students.
“The students deserve the physical environment they can learn in and the teachers deserve the physical environment they can teach in,” Mr Finn said.
“I’m not offering them false hope, but I’m going in to bat for them.”
Last month, a report from the Grattan Institute highlighted Sunshine Secondary College as an example of how to “turnaround” students’ grades.
The report said when principal Tim Blunt was appointed eight years ago, more than 60 per cent of Years 7 to 11 students were reading at a primary school level.
However the school is now ranked ahead of many independent colleges in literacy and numeracy.
In addition, the Grattan report said the college was in the top 10 per cent of Victorian government secondary schools for positive student attitude.
Mr Blunt said he was proud of the school’s academic record but believed students would be able to achieve even more in newer classrooms and buildings.
“We’ve been getting great results in sub-standard facilities,” he said.
“I’d be looking forward to getting even better ones in world-class facilities.
“I’m hoping we’ll be mentioned in the next budget.”
