NEWS Edition 2 – March 2021
Victory in Park Campaign A major public campaign by students, parents and community supporters has preserved APC’s right to use open space at Gasworks Arts Park as a recreation area for recess and lunch times. The college rallied hundreds of parents and residents to defeat a motion from officers of the City of Port Phillip that would have restricted student use of the park to a small, built up corner. Councillors each received more than 600 emails, after APC put out a call to parents and friends to come to its aid. In the debate in the council chamber, the elected representatives spoke of the extraordinary outpouring of support for the school’s campaign. The furore spilled out into the mainstream media. Our argument that children needed
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access to parkplands for their physical and mental health, especially after the pandemic lockdown, hit a nerve. Our campaign appeared on the front page of The Age, in the HeraldSun, on Channel 7 and Channel 9 news and on 3AW and 774 ABC. The council meeting was addressed by Principal Steven Cook, Assistant Principal Tim Nolan, School Council President Oona Nicolson and student leaders Melisand Box and Pia Martyn. Several community members showed up independently to voice their outrage over the motion and to condemn the misleading campaign by a small and unrepresentative handful of residents who were determined to stop our students sharing the park. The result was a unanimous vote to extend the school’s use of the space for another year. The school is delighted with the opportunity to share the park with the community into the future.
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