Gawler and District College is set to undergo a major redevelopment as a result of a $10 million commitment made by the previous State Labor Government.
The project recently received approval from the Public Works Committee of State Parliament with work expected to commence within the next few months.
Speaking at the Public Works Committee, local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo welcomed the commencement of the project, which would bring much needed new facilities to one of the many fantastic schools Gawler has to offer.
College Principal, Ms Angie Michaels told the Committee that “from our perspective we are extremely excited about the pending $10 million build from a whole community perspective.”
“What we are looking at now are new builds that will predominantly focus around our secondary area but that will bring the whole site in line in terms of a new build.”
Ms Michaels said, “from a student perspective, we are looking at a whole range of new general learning areas.”
“Some of those areas are specific subject spaces that we have created but with flexibility to have interchange around those general learning areas.”
“We (also) have a special unit that will accommodate new 21st century learning and also support 21st century pedagogical practice for students with disabilities.”
“For us the pavilion is one of the hallMarks of the whole project. It is a state-of-the-art space that has a membrane built over the top of it so that it is basically a covered outdoor learning area.”
“Again, it is very high-tech, and will provide the community space for us for whole-school opportunities.
Mr Piccolo said he welcomed the parental portal, which he believes will foster more interactions between the school and the community.
“That has only been enhanced by the fact that the previous state Labor government made an investment to upgrade Tulloch Road and some other roadworks in the area,” Mr Piccolo said. “While I welcome the investment, I do have some concerns about the project and I would wish the committee perhaps to inquire (into) on my behalf.”
“My understanding is that the cost of the removal of asbestos from the site and from the buildings, and also the removal of transportable buildings that have been removed and replaced, has been picked up by the school's internal budget, not by the project cost.”
“We have a school here which is financially doing it tough. It serves a broad community but essentially a community which has limited resources and those resources are now going to be used for part of this project, which is disappointing.”
“My understanding is that as a result of the need to build additional classrooms for the new year 7 students, to accommodate them in the project brief, they have actually had to pick up some of the additional costing themselves from their budget.”
“Also, one of the concerns I have is that some of the money to accommodate the new additional classrooms has been redirected from some upgrades of some of the older buildings.
“I have also been made aware that some of the buildings which have been recently upgraded for STEM facilities are actually already showing cracks and decay, so one has to actually start asking at what point some of these buildings need to be demolished and actually rebuilt.”