Wednesday, 19 March 2025

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (19:00): (1071) Yarra Hills Secondary College Mount Evelyn campus in my electorate is a fantastic local school, and the students, their families and teachers deserve new facilities and the best possible learning environment. The matter I raise is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to provide funding to build a modern multipurpose stadium at the school, which would double as a fit-for-purpose shelter-in-place location for the school community in times of emergency. Yarra Hills Secondary College has a plan for this project: an indoor sports stadium with four basketball courts, a gymnasium and a commercial kitchen, as well as a pavilion to service the school’s oval. The building would benefit the school greatly for teaching, assemblies, presentations, performances and art shows. I commend Mount Evelyn campus principal Leighton O’Donnell and school principal Darren Trippett and of course all of the Yarra Hills staff for their fantastic advocacy for the school and for this exciting project. The students are wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoy my opportunities to attend their events, including music concerts and art shows. Indeed I have visited Yarra Hills Secondary College Mount Evelyn campus on many occasions and have seen firsthand how these new facilities would benefit the school and the broader community.

While Yarra Hills Mooroolbark campus received some facility upgrades recently, the Mount Evelyn campus students and teachers are still waiting for the upgrades and new infrastructure that they need and deserve. The students and teachers at Yarra Hills Mount Evelyn should not be penalised for the postcode that they live in, yet I am informed that the Mount Evelyn campus of Yarra Hills Secondary College has not received any capital improvement funding for over 20 years. The Labor government has been in power for most of this time, and for the last 10 years the Andrews–Allan Labor government has penalised schools based on postcode and not sufficiently invested in their own school in Mount Evelyn. Our community appreciates the fabulous efforts of campus principal Leighton O’Donnell and his vision to revitalise this school and attract more students from our local Mount Evelyn community. Upgrading facilities and building this new stadium will help contribute to Yarra Hills Secondary Mount Evelyn having the 21st-century learning spaces that they need, and I know that this project is a major priority for this local school community. I call on the government to provide this much-needed funding for this new multipurpose stadium at Yarra Hills Secondary College in Mount Evelyn.