28th June 2011

HUME schools have been short-changed on state government funding, Broadmeadows MP Frank McGuire says.

In a week when a northern metropolitan school hit the headlines because it was so cold studentshad to bring blankets to class, Mr McGuire said only one school in Melbourne’s north and west,the Hume Valley School for special-needs students,had received money for building upgrades.

“Seven months into government, [Premier] Ted Baillieu hasn’t delivered a plan to build on Labor’s vision for education in Melbourne’s north,” Mr McGuire said.

The comments come as a school in nearby City of Banyule, Greensborough College, became the first in the state to temporarily amend its uniform policy, allowing shivering students to wear coverings and extra layers as classes push through cold winter mornings when the school’s faulty power supply leaves classrooms unheated.

School council member Stella Goldsmith told the Weekly the decision was made in the interest of students’ well-being. Ms Goldsmith said the power failures shut down the heating, lighting and computers for up to a day each time.

“The school is crying out for [government] help, simply to be able to provide a comfortable learning environment for students,” she said. The government has offered $80,000 to rewire the school, but an electrical engineering report conducted last year found upgrading the school’spower would cost about $187,000.

Greensborough College had previously been promised a $20 million funding boost by the former Labor government to upgrade its facilities. In the run-up to the 2006 state election, the

Baillieu-led opposition committed to match Labor’s $1.7 billion pledge to rebuild public schools and Greensborough College was earmarked for the next stage of funding. But now, the Coalition government has slashed funding to $208 million over four years for state schools, but Greensborough College was not named among the recipients. Ms Goldsmith said Education Minister Martin

Dixon had been invited three times since last October to visit the school and see the problems firsthand,but had declined on each occasion. Principal John Conway was disappointed the school would not get the funding it needed.

Australian Education Union Victorian president Mary Bluett said the school missed out because it was in a safe Labor seat and that the government needed to “examine its conscience”.

“Right across Melbourne’s north and west, apart from one special-needs school, there are almost no projects,” she said.