HOPES for a high school returning to the Yarraville area have died, with Education Minister Martin Dixon firmly ruling out a new school.
The Seddon, Kingsville, Yarraville (SKY) High working group’s decade-long push for the return of a secondary school to the area has gone backwards since the change of government two years ago.
The group’s 18-month push for a meeting with Mr Dixon had been rebuffed at every turn and he has now confirmed he has no intention of considering a new school.
His spokesman has told the Weekly the decision was based on an Education Department analysis of secondary school provision in the area — analysis that SKY High argues is deeply flawed.
The spokesman said Maribyrnong Secondary College and Williamstown High School were experiencing enrolment pressures, but Footscray City College and Bayside P-12 had sufficient capacity to ensure all students could be enrolled.
“That local capacity is expected to meet projected demand for the next 13 years,” he said.
“Based on the analysis, no additional secondary school for the Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville area will be considered in the immediate future.”
SKY High spokeswoman Janine Lloyd said the group’s 1500 families would be deeply disappointed by the decision.
“For 18 months we have been trying to meet with the minister to discuss the clear need for a school and the significantly flawed methodology of the department,” she said.
SKY High research shows the number of students in public secondary colleges in the SKY area is 40 per cent above the metropolitan Melbourne rate. Seven in 10 primary school-aged children attend a public primary school — 30 per cent higher than the metropolitan Melbourne average — and four in five of these children go on to attend a public high school.
Ms Lloyd said the group now had no choice but to embark on a noisy political campaign.
“If we leave this until too late there won’t be any sites left in the area for a school to ever be built.”
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said the decision was a blow to parents and children in the area. “It has taken the government two years to make their position clear. I think it highly unlikely that parents will simply cop this; I think it would have been courteous for the minister to simply sit down and listen to what the community has to say. He is quite happy to listen to his department, but he’s not listening to people in this community.”
