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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-08 Daily Xml
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Norwood Morialta High School Redevelopment

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:44): I am really pleased to be able to share with the parliament today some of the enthusiasm and excitement that are building in the eastern suburbs and north-eastern suburbs as a result of the government's decision to invest $84 million in building a new school on the site of the old Norwood Morialta High School's middle campus.

This is a project that is grounded in evidence and advice from the education department and Infrastructure SA. It is welcomed not just by the communities that are going to be served by the new school—which are, of course, in the member for Hartley's electorate, in my electorate and, indeed, in your electorate to be, sir, in Heysen—but by the broader areas and surrounding schools, many of which are at capacity or over capacity and are expected to be at capacity or significantly over capacity for a number of years to come.

A number of schools are having to enforce capacity management plans or are enforcing their zones, reducing opportunities for children to go there who may have a particular aptitude in a specialist area that one of the schools offers. It is noteworthy that at the Norwood Morialta High School Parade campus, despite the substantial investment and campus expansion that are going on there, and the expansion of Norwood Morialta High School overall, that school is expected to be under massive enrolment pressure without the new school taking place and without adjustments to the boundaries and the zonings.

It is a significant investment to be sure, but it needs to be made. For many years, I have been drawing to the house's attention the dilapidated facilities at the Rostrevor campus of Norwood Morialta High School. We welcomed in opposition the announcement that the former government made that they would be spending $30 million to improve Norwood Morialta High School by consolidating onto the one campus. We did raise questions at the time as to whether that would be enough. What was not provided in the answer was that there was not enough money. Indeed, we have discovered that the upgrade necessary to consolidate the campus is in the order of $50 million.

What was also not advised before the election was that the former government's plan was to sell off the land at the Rostrevor campus for housing. Not only was it a secret that was never revealed to the people of South Australia or the people of these areas before the election, which is bad enough in itself, but the wrong-headedness of the policy solution they had identified was that they might have expected $15 million to be banked towards the new school project, but they were also going to increase pressure on those school systems—Charles Campbell, Norwood Morialta and other surrounding schools—that were already at significant capacity pressure with that extra housing coming in.

Urban infill and the new developments in the east were already creating pressure, and the former government's response would have made it much worse. This government has responded by taking advice from the education department, noting that schools were headed towards being at 132 per cent of their capacity, noting the business case presented to Infrastructure SA and endorsed for investment by Infrastructure SA. We acted—$84 million.

A zone has been released for public consultation—which closes tomorrow—that sees the northern boundary at Montacute Road, the eastern boundary also being at Montacute Road at the other end, then coming back via Nicholls Road, Norton Summit Road, Kintyre Road, Koongarra Avenue and Shakespeare Avenue at the south, and Glynburn Road at the west.

The opportunity for public consultation is to identify if there are any localised issues that the Department for Education has missed, but it is worth noting that the evidence that has been used by the Department for Education to draft these boundaries is based on what is needed by the public school system that will serve to ensure that all the schools can manage their capacity. As the local MP, I have intentionally stayed at arm's length from that process and let the department handle that design, and I am looking forward to them taking that feedback and identifying if any changes will be made.

Also, some changes have been mooted to the Marryatville High School zone, noting that currently Marryatville High School takes a significant number of students from the western part of the Norwood Morialta School zone—the boundaries to the west of Ashbrook Avenue, Salop Street, Shipsters Road and Tusmore Road are proposed to be moved to Marryatville, which is effectively putting in place what happens now for many families.

In 2023, it is proposed there will be 200 students, and then it will grow every year by 200 until we are full at 1,200 students, with the first graduating class in 2028. I am sure we will see this school proudly represented by those students. A name? More than 200 suggestions have come in from the community, and an announcement will be coming very soon. I look forward to seeing this project developed to serve the communities of the eastern suburbs. I wish the Labor Party would stop bagging it, get on board and support this public education option for our children and young people.

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