Tuesday, 30 August 2022

 Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (19:06): (6508) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action that I seek is for the Andrews Labor government to immediately and urgently assure the Beaumaris Secondary College community that the originally planned stage 2 developments, which include double-court extensions to the games hall gymnasium, will be fully implemented at that school. I visited Beaumaris Secondary College and met with the principal, Debby Chaves, and school council president, Steve Pearce, in May this year to discuss the fact that the government has at this point failed to fulfil its promised stage 2 development in its entirety and has apparently abandoned its commitment to double the capacity of the gymnasium as part of the stage 2 and final development. In June, upon the new education minister’s appointment, I wrote to her requesting urgent consideration of this matter. We are nearing September and the minister is yet to respond to my request seeking an immediate assurance that the double-court extension will be completed as forecast in the school’s master plan.

This extension is significantly important to the Beaumaris Secondary College community but also has a range of other benefits to the wider Bayside community. The current space in the gymnasium has a capacity of 800. The co-educational college currently has an enrolment of 841 in years 7 to 11 and is projected to have a student population of over 1000 next year with the expansion of the year 12 cohort. The school will not be able to meet for a whole-school assembly nor any other college event from next year onwards. There are also more than 50 sport and health lifestyle classes that run in the gymnasium per week, as well as many sport enhancement programs for hundreds of students. The expanded gymnasium will provide the school with the ability to host inter-school fixtures as well. The gymnasium is also used by local sporting and recreational clubs in the evenings until 9.00 pm and on weekends, and this extension would meet growing community demands as well as provide an important sustainable revenue stream for the school. The solution to this problem would simply be for the minister to fulfil the government’s initial commitment of $19 million for the stage 2 development. In this year’s state budget the promised $19 million was decreased by $4.5 million.

My advocacy for better educational infrastructure in my community also extends to the redevelopment of Mentone Girls Secondary College, funding for stage 2 of the Sandringham College redevelopment and gymnasiums for both Beaumaris and Beaumaris North primary schools. I humbly suggest to the minister that the remaining $4.5 million already announced by the government and initially budgeted be used to deliver the much-needed and anticipated double-court extension to the games hall gymnasium at Beaumaris Secondary College.