Bellarine Times
Tuesday 2 August 2011
VOL 4. No 31
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
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PROTEST Close to 200 community members and friends of Portarlington Primary School made their voices heard at a public rally to convince the government to upgrade the school on Sunday. Among them was Daniel Gardiner, pictured left. Photo: MICHAEL CHAMBERS
BY DAVID FINLAYSON THE STEELY determination of the Portarlington community to fight for their local primary school to be re-built was on show at a public rally on Sunday afternoon. Close to 200 people, many of them wearing protest t-shirts and waving placards, attended the rally at the Portarlington Primary School in Newcombe Street. The rally was organised by the Build Our School Action Committee (BOSAC) comprising concerned parents and members of the community. The group has been waging an ongoing campaign to force the Baillieu government into replacing the aging Portarlington Primary School buildings.
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BOSAC spokeswoman, and member of the school council, Karen Bourke-Finn said more than 2000 people had already signed a petition to be sent to the government. “That’s a very significant number of signatures for a community of this size. As a collective group we want to have a voice; we want them to hear our concerns,” Bourke-Finn said. “Portarlington is the last school on the Bellarine Peninsula to be refurbished or rebuilt. “We lose a third of our local population of potential students to other schools because they come in and look at the buildings and decide to go elsewhere. “They don’t understand the quality of the teaching that goes on inside those buildings; they
judge on aesthetics. I can understand why, because the buildings are no longer functional for modernday schooling. “The demographics in Portarlington are changing. A lot of young families are moving into the area – we’d like to attract them to our school.” The rally was addressed by the Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville who said the former labor government had committed $6 million during the last election campaign to rebuilding the school. Neville called on the current government to match that commitment. In an open letter sent last week to Premier Ted Baillieu and Minister for Education Martin Dixon, BOSC asked why funding for a new school was “unceremoniously withdrawn”.
“Portarlington people . . . were excited and enthused about the prospect of what was to be a fantastic facility to suit a fantastic community. Our plans for the school were in production, with money delivered and spent to give us a vision of our ideal school. Is that work now to be thrown away?” the letter asked. The Baillieu government has previously disputed that the former Labour government had committed to rebuild the school. The government has said no funds had been allocated by Labour in the education department budget. The rally was also addressed by several students from the school, and a teacher representing the education union, stating why a new school building was important to them.
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