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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-18 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: Glenunga International High School Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:06): I move:

That the 95th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Glenunga International High School Redevelopment Project, be noted.

Mr Speaker, as you are aware, Glenunga International High School is located between L'Estrange and Conyngham streets at Glenunga in the City of Burnside. The high school curriculum offers subjects in areas such as the humanities, maths, sciences and specialist programs, including the well-regarded Ignite program for students with high intellectual potential and also the International Baccalaureate Diploma for senior students.

The redevelopment will provide capacity to accommodate 2,200 students to cater for enrolment growth, including the transition of year 7 to high school in 2022. Glenunga International High School was allocated funding of $29.2 million as part of the Department for Education's capital works program. An additional $2.8 million was allocated in May 2020. Combined, the total project funding now stands at $32 million.

As I earlier mentioned, the redevelopment will consist of demolition and new works to accommodate up to 2,200 students at the existing school site. The key drivers for the redevelopment are to provide additional accommodation to support the transition of year 7 to high school, local demographic growth, the demolition of aged buildings, asbestos removal and improve street presence and the school's connectivity to the community. The project aims to provide modern educational accommodation to meet legislative compliance and to deliver the department's benchmark accommodation for students in a secondary school. The proposed redevelopment will be staged, with the construction expected to be completed by October 2021.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to this project and received assurances that the appropriate consultation in relation to the project had been undertaken. The committee is satisfied that the proposal has been subject to the appropriate agency consultation and meets the criteria for the examination of projects set out in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991. Based on the evidence considered, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the scope of the proposed public works that I have today outlined to members.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (11:09): I rise to support the Public Works Committee report and thank the members of the committee for undertaking this work. I personally welcome the $32 million project funding to accommodate up to 2,200 students at the Glenunga International High School. In February last year, it had just over 1,800 enrolments, and there will be the creation of an additional 400 enrolments by 2022. This expansion will make Glenunga the largest government school in South Australia.

Those additional spaces are absolutely vital to what would have to be the number one social issue in the eastern area—that is, access to public education and the schools. For the 16 years I was here in this parliament under a different government, it was a regular issue for a number of the ministers of that government to understand the urgency of what is needed to make provision for spaces.

The redevelopment will also support another very important initiative of the new government, our government—that is, the transition of year 7s into high school in 2022. There is a high demand anyway. In relation to the initiative, which will very much help the very burgeoning public schools in the primary sector within my electorate, this will be a massive relief, and we do need to make provision for that. The aspects particularly in relation to the new science facilities and the like have been outlined by the Chair of the committee, and I will not describe them any further, but they will make a very important addition both of accommodation of students and of amenity.

Every week, I walk past this facility at 6 o'clock in the morning; it is getting darker and darker in the morning, so I do not see as much. But I can tell you it is something that I welcome: the whole of this area, under the redistribution of boundaries, coming back into the electorate of Bragg. If I am successful in being the member after the next election, then I will proudly resume representation of this area and continue the advocacy for the school and the precinct generally.

There are 76 different countries of birth among students who attend the Glenunga International High School. It has the very well acclaimed Ignite program, which has been referred to. Higher intellectual potential students have an opportunity to accelerate their learning, and this is a great opportunity for those students. The International Baccalaureate is known to many, and that program is offered. Glenunga offers both the SACE and the IB Diploma—offered since 1990, with Glenunga the first state school in SA to offer the program—to year 11 and 12 students. Course counselling is provided to help students decide which program is the best pathway for their education.

Every student gets a good education at this school. I want to place on the record my appreciation for and recognition of the principal of the school. As the previous member and, I hope, the new member covering the area, I note that principal Wendy Johnson has shown an excellent level of stewardship in education and in this school in particular, and I know that she is highly valued and respected among her education community.

I should disclose that the school is also the school that one of my sisters, Trish, attended to complete her year 11, as it was at that stage, and she later undertook studies to provide skills in relation to secretarial work at the time. So there is some historical connection with the school, which I disclose, but I am very proud that I will be resuming, hopefully, the representation as the Bragg member for this area and the Glenunga school community.

I also wish to commend the school generally in respect of their outstanding performance within our local community. It not only is a high achieving school but also has undertaken considerable work for the general community. Just down the road we have a significant sporting ground which has been developed by the Burnside council. Further along, we have a new men's shed facility. Obviously, to the west of the school precinct are some residential areas but also the Glenside hospital and services that are provided in that precinct.

It has been a dynamic, developed area, and I think it is one which the school community and the population there have certainly been active in providing support to and in utilising the service around it. There is also a pretty valuable dog walking area in the precinct of the school.

I will continue to keep an eye on the school development as it continues. There has been some shortage. I am now a building forum minister, so I am in charge of building things. I will no doubt need the advice of the member for Unley on lots of things in relation to that. We have had some steel and timber shortages in relation to the massive infrastructure build that the government is undertaking, including HomeBuilder projects, which has inevitably affected some of the available resources for schools.

I want to thank the member for Unley for looking after this area in his eight years of responsibility for this area. I look forward to resuming it. I did say to them prior to the boundary redistribution some 10 years ago, 'I will get you back eventually,' and I will. Congratulations to the Glenside community for this important advance in their school.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (11:15): I, too, wish to make some remarks on this exciting project. As the Deputy Premier said, Glenunga International High School has been in the seat of Unley since the 2002 election. Glenunga moved and then Glenside followed a few years later, but what has not changed is that it is a catchment school for almost every primary school in my electorate, including as far west as Goodwood. Goodwood Primary School has access to three high school options: Unley High School, Adelaide High School and Glenunga International High School.

This project will take capacity up to about 2,200. This will be the largest school in the state, but of course what is even more exciting about this is that grade 7 will be in high school at Glenunga International High School and all our state schools from next year. From my point of view, being the Minister for Skills, it is in that first year of high school when students will start to be exposed to the career opportunities that are available to them once they have finished high school. No longer will you see students in years 11 and 12 still wondering what they are going to do when they leave school because they will be very well versed, with experience and advice starting from year 7.

I always enjoy the year 12 graduation ceremony the school has at the Adelaide Town Hall. Unfortunately, I have not been to one since COVID, but I can work out why—because you shake hands with about 400 year 12 students as they receive their certificates, so you would go through quite a bit of antibacterial sanitiser during that period.

It is terrific to see the wide variety of plans because not only does the principal, Wendy Johnson, ensure that the success of the students, and the subjects that they were successful in—where they excelled—is celebrated on the night but we also get some indication as to where they are going from year 12. Obviously, many of them choose the university option. Others who have done the IB will also choose that option, but others also choose options in the apprenticeship sphere, which is obviously terrific to see.

I will use this opportunity to particularly thank Wendy Johnson and Bruce Lines, the chair of the governing council, for bringing me into the negotiations they were having with the education department about certain criteria they wanted to see within the redevelopment of Glenunga. I was very pleased with the enthusiastic welcome I got from Minister Gardner, the education minister, in helping to deliver on the solutions they put forward. They put their position to the government in a very professional manner through their local member, and it was a very good outcome, so a big thank you to Wendy and Bruce for the way that those negotiations went and how they finished up. It was a good outcome for the school and a good outcome for the Unley community.

Just before I finish, my very first visit to Glenunga High School was back in 2006, when Rob Knight was the principal. He was the principal who took this school from a school that only had a few hundred students to the capacity that it had about that time. His focus on academic outcomes and on extracurricular areas, such as sport and music, certainly paid off. It is a very desirable school to attend. I do not think a single house that is for sale in the Glenunga school zone does not list that as being one of the benefits of that home.

It does cause some problems for local members. I forewarn the Deputy Premier that there will be people who will try to manipulate the system to get into the Glenunga school, and there will be others who will genuinely have issues when they are entitled to get in. I am very pleased to report that both the school and the department have been very good at accommodating those rare situations when they pop up.

This is a terrific development for the electorate of Unley and for the people of Unley and, despite the fact that the school physically will not be in the seat of Unley after the next election, many of those who live in the seat of Unley will attend that school. People who live in other parts of Unley are zoned to Unley High School and others are zoned to Adelaide High School, so we have a terrific set of high schools in Unley that people can choose, on top of, of course, the large number of non-government schools that are very close to those who live within the seat of Unley.

One that comes to mind that is actually in the seat of Unley is Walford girls school. We also have Concordia College, which is a co-ed school and a sister to the Premier's old school, down at the Bay. There are plenty of options for quality education in Unley, and I am very pleased that Glenunga High School is getting this very exciting upgrade.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:23): I acknowledge the contribution made by the Deputy Premier, the member for Bragg, and also the minister, the member for Unley. The Deputy Premier has been a passionate and committed advocate for public education throughout the course of her life and, of course, in her time in this place, and also a dedicated advocate for the necessary scale of this project.

It is one of her many achievements as the local member to ensure that this project can be seen to completion to benefit many of her constituents and many other constituents of different members in this place. I was very interested to hear that her sister had attended the school and so she is closely familiar with the school and its history and its unique contribution to education in South Australia over a very significant period of time.

I thank, too, as I earlier mentioned, the member for Unley, and acknowledge that he has had a very significant hand in ensuring that the scope of works is appropriate, working closely with the principal, Wendy Johnson, who is a major asset to public education, and the school governing council chair, Bruce Lines. I understand that the member for Bragg and the member for Unley will have shared responsibility for resolving many other issues in the future that may need to be resolved in the school community. I emphasise and place on record our thanks to both members for their extraordinary dedication to ensuring that this project can be seen through to completion.

Motion carried.

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