Tuesday 31 May 2011
VOL 4. No 22
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
Bellarine Times
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Maddy’s big day out BARWON Heads’ Maddison Rakic is already counting down the days until she sets foot on the MCG on grand final day. The eight-year-old Geelong fan has been named the round nine nominee for the NAB AFL Auskicker of the Year Award. Maddison, a Grade 2 student at Kardinia International College, has her sights set on becoming the first female AFL player. As part of her nomination, Maddison gets to play at halftime in September’s grand final, takes part in the AFL parade through Melbourne on grand final eve, and if she is named Auskicker of the Year, she will be personally mentored by her hero, Joel Selwood, for 12 months.
Maddison has already been in the spotlight after she was interviewed on national television by Barwon Heads resident and Channel 10 reporter, Mark Howard.
SCHOOL WAIT Photo: MICHAEL CHAMBERS
Opposition calls on State Government to provide funding for Portarlington school
BY DAVID FINLAYSON A LONG-AWAITED upgrade of Portarlington Primary School could be halted indefinitely because the State Government will not fund the drawing up of ‘schematic’ plans, the opposition claims. The plans are an essential next step in a government funding application process for the ageing school buildings to be upgraded to the standard of other schools in the region, and community consultation and planning for the school upgrade began some years ago. Labor Member for Western Victoria, Gayle Tierney, told state parliament last week there was “shock and real disappointment in the community” when the recent state budget made no allocation to continue planning for the school’s upgrade.
Surf Forecast
Tierney said the school had already completed a masterplan and a large amount of work and consultation had been undertaken. “Portarlington Primary School has a good number of enrolments, great teachers, a caring and driven principal, committee and engaged parents and great kids,” Tierney said. “But what it doesn’t have is the $60,000 needed for the schematic stage of the upgrade.” Tierney called on education minister, Martin Dixon, to commit funding or risk the school losing the planned upgrade altogether. “The stepping stones for school funding require an allocation of sequential state budgets. Failure for this to occur will stop the redevelopment,” Tierney said. Tierney said Labor had made a pre-election
promise of $6million for the redevelopment of the school, and that the incumbent State Government needs to listen to the community. Liberal Member for Western Victoria Region, David Koch, said his office was unaware of any official Labor policy funding announcements for the upgrade of the school. “A lot of projects are in the early stages of developing funding applications, such as at Portarlington,” Koch said. “The government has had to put some projects on hold; but those projects are not necessarily lost. “This [the Portarlington application] is something that will continue to be reviewed.” Portarlington Primary School principal, Denise Simons, said the schematic designs were essential if
the school was to lodge a funding bid by November, for consideration as part of the 2012 state budget. “The school upgrade is necessary to allow improved teacher and student interaction and the better sharing of facilities across the school,” Simons said. She said the old-style classroom design was restrictive and limited the use of computers and some teaching methods. She said the ageing school buildings were also costly to maintain. “We have probably lost enrolments due to the fact the school needs rebuilding,” Simons said. “The school community is disappointed that the government doesn’t have funds to take this to the next stage when everyone understands the need at Portarlington.”
WED 0-1ft+ flat N 18° THU 1-2ft+ average SW 18° FRI 2-4ft building NNW 17° SAT 2-4ft+ quality NW 15°
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