25 June 2015
The Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh has turned up the heat on the Melbourne Labor Government to fund the Echuca Schools Regeneration Project.
The project will bring together Echuca Specialist School Echuca South Primary School and Echuca West Primary School.
In State Parliament this week Mr Walsh asked the Minister for Education the Hon James Merlino to receive a deputation from the three schools so that the school councils can present the completed master plan to him.
The concept of developing a new education hub on a greenfield site in Echuca has been flagged for more than a decade and these three schools agreed to merge in 2007.
“I am proud to say that the Nationals Liberal Coalition in government funded the purchase of the greenfield site allocated $200k for planning and committed $25 million in capital money to build this new learning environment.
“Now that the master plan has been finalised I call on the Melbourne Labor Government to match our commitment to the capital expenditure “ Mr Walsh said.
Mr Walsh said Echuca Specialist School provides education for children aged 5-18 years with special needs. Numbers are progressively growing with indications that this trend will continue into the future.
“To educate these young people in some rented accommodation with DEECD portable buildings is simply not good enough.”
“We are clearly on the wrong side of Wallan”
“It is vital that students in Victoria – whether they live in the city or the country – get a quality education and a modern purpose-built school in Echuca will provide the learning environment that the long suffering teachers and students of South West and the Specialist School so richly deserve “ he said.