By Vanessa Chircop
BAYSIDE College may be forced to waste $1 million “sprucing up” classrooms that should be bulldozed – if funding is not allocated to the school soon.
As reported by Star in May, members of the school community have been left reeling after funding cuts by the State Government have forced their Stage 2 building works to be downgraded at the Newport campus.
School Council president Steven Kingshott said despite several requests for a meeting, the Minister for Education Martin Dixon’s silence on the matter has been equally frustrating.
“We haven’t heard from him – it’s quite frustrating,” he said.
Just two days before Christmas last year the school was informed about the downgrade to their budget which would not be amended to include unforeseen costs and special factors.
“We were informed that our budget for the Stage 2 works had been revised down from $12.149 million to $10 million, and that special factors would now sit within the new brief and budget,” he said.
Despite this a spokesperson for the Minister claims no such funding cuts have taken place.
“At no time was Bayside Secondary College promised $12.1 million by either this government or the previous government,” the spokesperson said.
“The previous Labor government allocated $10 million for the school’s redevelopment in its 2010/11 budget.
“This is exactly the same amount the school will receive under the Victorian Coalition Government.”
The spokesperson would not say why the Minister had not responded to the schools letters or requests for a meeting and would not say if the Minister would agree to a meeting in the near future.
However, Williamstown MP Wade Noonan sees things differently.
Mr Noonan told Star the initial $10 million was an estimate and that an exact cost for the Stage 2 works could not be understood until detailed design works had been completed.
“The College now faces an absurd situation whereby $1 million will be spent to spruce-up classrooms that were previous earmarked to be rebuilt because they were structurally unsound,” he said.
Mr Kingshott said money would be wasted refurbishing the block of classrooms that need to be completely rebuilt.
“It’s like putting a band aid on something and hoping the problem will go away,” he said.
“All we’re asking is to finish the job that has already started and that we agreed to do.”
