RELATED: Petition launched
SALE Specialist School’s campaign for a new facility has been kept in focus with Eastern Victoria MLC Danny O’Brien raising the issue twice on the first day of sitting of the new Victorian parliament.
Mr O’Brien said winning the necessary funding for the school would be a focus of his for 2015.
Mr O’Brien made a plea for funding to the new Education Minister, James Merlino, during the adjournment debate where MPs can raise matters for ministerial action.
He also moved a motion in the Legislative Council calling on the new Labor Government to match funding pledged by the Coalition.
“The Sale Specialist School has been waging a campaign for more than a decade for a new campus as student numbers have grown,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The former Coalition government purchased a greenfields site and allocated $4 million in this year’s budget to get work started and committed the remaining $15 million needed for the school during the election campaign.
“Labor has talked big on education and during its time in opposition was critical of the Coalition over funding for the school. The former opposition Parliamentary Secretary for Education said he was shocked at the cramped conditions at the school.
“This is a project that should have bipartisan support and now that preliminary works have begun on the new site, it is important that the funding program continues,” he said.
Mr O’Brien said the school already operated from three different campuses and the prospect of a new, fourth campus being part-finished is not something teachers, parents and students want to contemplate.
“The parents, teachers and wider community have run a strong campaign for this project to get off the ground and we need to keep the momentum up.”
Gippsland South MLA Peter Ryan has also pledged to ensure the school’s needs are highlighted to the new government. People have been encouraged to sign the petition supporting the school which is available at the school or at Mr Ryan’s Sale office, 54B Cunninghame St.
