By Karen Poh
THE Western Autistic School may get its new home after all, despite being left out of this year’s State Budget.
Senior Government officials have agreed to discuss the issue after extensive lobbying by the school community.
Following the budget announcement, parents of the school were shocked and outraged over what they felt was the Government reneging on a 2006 promise to fund a new campus in Laverton.
Star reported in July 2006 the announcement made by then-education minister Lynne Kosky at the Laverton Forum of plans to transform Laverton Plains Primary School into a state-of-the-art facility for Western Autistic School.
Parent Kylee Bealey said she could not understand why they were sidelined, especially since the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s western metropolitan office had “put it down as a must have for the region”.
Plans for the new school had already been drawn up, Ms Bealey said.
“All we were waiting for was for the Government to fulfil the pledge and fund the school building project,” she said.
Principal Val Smith said everyone was “shell-shocked when the budget came and there was nothing”.
“So we started on a campaign and thought we’d fight it,” she said.
The new school, estimated to cost more than $12 million to build, would house more than 100 students from the current makeshift Deer Park campus and incorporate a world-class autism training institute.
Without funding, it would be years before students would be able to move out of the ramshackle Deer Park campus.
“You just cannot have kids living in these conditions,” Ms Gill said.
“It was never supposed to be a school again after Deer Park Primary School moved out of there… because of safety issues and toxic fumes from the traffic,” she said.
“But with our growing numbers, we were told that it was either put up with it for a year or knock families back.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on refurbishment, “just getting it barely livable,” Ms Gill said.
She described the Deer Park campus as one of the worst in Melbourne.
“It looks like Alcatraz because of the big security fence around it. If a child gets out, they’d be dead because the corner is lethal.
“And the whole infrastructure has had it – drainage, electricity, lighting, sewer. Heaters break down, we’ve had gas leaks, teachers can’t open windows because there’s double-glazing and fumes.
“So the whole atmosphere is pretty bad,” she said.
A one-year wait with the promise of a new school has turned into four, Ms Gill said.
“We hoped that we would go to tender this year and be ready to build next year, and hopefully move in early 2010.
“So you think okay, you’re prepared to be there for a year more, and that’s already too long,” she said.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Education Early Childhood Development said it was unfortunate that “not all projects can be funded at once and we have to balance priority projects across the state”.
“The department is working closely with the Western Autistic School in planning the best possible state-of-the-art environment for its students,” she said
“The school will receive an upgrade during this term as promised as part of the Victorian Schools Plan, which is the Government’s 10-year plan to transform Victorian schools by funding the rebuilding, renovating or extension of all schools,” she said.
Discussions with high-level State Government officials will take place later this week.
Ms Gill said it was too early to divulge who and what, except they were feeling a little more hopeful.
“But we are not counting our chickens yet,” she said.
