Elizabeth Electorate Schools

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (15:20): I rise to speak briefly about round 2 of the federal government's Schools Upgrade Fund and to really give a bouquet to the education minister in the way this particular fund was dealt with. Members would be aware that this is a federal government fund, this is obviously round 2 of it, and South Australia's share was $17 million for 18 schools across the state.

Before I forget to, I want to thank Matt Burnell, the member for Spence. I know he went in to bat for his schools in the electorate. He made it clear to both me and the minister that this funding directed to schools in the north was very important to him, and I am pleased to say that once the state minister considered the applications—and there were some 235 applications—of the six schools in the metropolitan area that got funding, four of them were in the electorate of Elizabeth. I am really pleased about that and I am in the process of visiting some of those schools now. Of the other two, one was in the minister's electorate of Hurtle Vale and the other, Swallowcliffe Primary School, was close by to me in the electorate of Taylor.

I took the time last week to visit three of the four schools in my electorate that received that funding and I want to congratulate Elizabeth Park Primary School Principal Kath Best, Elizabeth Grove Primary School Principal Julie Brown, Elizabeth East Primary School Principal Thomas Harvey, and Kaurna Plains School Principal Angela Walkuski. Kaurna Plains School is a lovely little school in my electorate. I know that they all put in quality applications.

The criteria, I am pleased to say, was very much focused on disadvantage. There is a formula they go through. I am often a bit wary of these formulas. I sometimes think that when these funding formulas are applied by the education department, the data does not quite read the need and does not quite convey the need in some of these schools. But in this case I think they got it right.

Elizabeth East Primary School received $400,000 for primary classrooms and corridor refurbishment, and I was pleased to have a walk around with Thomas Harvey to see the work they were doing there. They do have some empty classrooms that need refurbishment so that they can actually be used for a decent purpose.

I also went to Elizabeth Park Primary School. That was one I particularly pushed with the minister and I am particularly proud that they received $1,500,000 for the refurbishment of their STEM centre—really, the establishment of a decent STEM centre in their school—and also the refurbishment of a classroom that they use. They are very much near capacity and that classroom was in desperate need of refurbishment. I was particularly pleased that, after talking to the minister and impressing upon him the need for this funding, it matched up with the decision he made based on the data and disadvantage.

I also visited Julie Brown at Elizabeth Grove Primary School, another great school in my electorate. I visit there very often. She was particularly pleased. I hope she does not mind me saying she was very, very pleased with the $1,760,000 grant for an upgrade of their administration building, which sounds like they are serving the principal and the admin staff, but what they are actually doing is building more spaces for kids in need who demand more intensive teaching by teachers, in some cases one on one, to provide them with spaces where they can feel safe and also where the staff including the principal can have a good line of sight to them, because that is very important. It is not just a simple case of refurbishing an old transportable classroom on the edge of the school and conducting those activities there. It needs to be done in a place where the student and the teacher can be seen, for a variety of reasons. Julie Brown was very, very pleased and I was also very, very pleased to give her the good news.

The last one is Kaurna Plains. I have not had a chance to visit Kaurna Plains yet since this funding has been announced, but obviously I have visited Kaurna Plains many times. I am looking forward to their governing council meeting soon. They have had an extension again to their administration area, which could mean many things, as I have said, and also to their gym. It is a very small school. It is a very small footprint. They try to share facilities with the nearby high school, but that sometimes does not work. But having said all that, I do just want to commend the minister and the education department for making these decisions. I thank Matt Burnell, the member for Spence, and I look forward to visiting Kaurna Plains next week.