Labor says it’ll honour city school upgrade, restore former shared CBD high school zone boundaries
Labor has pledged to honour a major expansion of Adelaide Botanic High School – but it is also promising to bring back ousted zones.
Education
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Major expansions of Adelaide Botanic and Roma Mitchell high schools will proceed regardless of which party wins the state election, after Labor vowed to match the state government's $119 million pledge.
But the opposition has gone a step further, promising to restore the former boundaries of the shared CBD high school zone for Adelaide Botanic and Adelaide High, which was controversially reduced in 2019.
Suburbs to be restored to the zone would include all or parts of Hilton, Torrensville, Mile End, Kurralta Park, Glandore, Richmond, Marleston, Black Forest and Clarence Park.
Students from those suburbs had been rezoned to Underdale High, Plympton International College and Springbank Secondary.
On Saturday, Premier Steven Marshall announced a $98m expansion of Adelaide Botanic, boosting capacity by 700, as well as a plan to spend $21m at Roma Mitchell College at Gepps Cross, to increase capacity by 300 students.
Labor education spokesman Blair Boyer said on Saturday: “Labor supports expanding Adelaide Botanic High School. (We) will proceed with this expansion if elected in March.
“Labor in government will reinstate those suburbs that were cruelly cut. (We remain) deeply disappointed by the Liberal government’s cuts to suburbs from the shared zone due to their own lack of planning around the transition of year 7 into high school.”
Mr Boyer said, if needed, numbers of out-of-zone students offered places in special-entry programs, which include cricket and rowing at Adelaide High, would be reviewed.
“If the increased enrolment capacity is not enough to cater for all in-zone students we will reduce out-of-zone enrolments to guarantee if you live in the zone you can attend one of those schools,” he said.
However, Education Minister John Gardner said reinstating the former zone boundary was not feasible.
The Liberals have consistently maintained that the shared zone the former Labor government created was unsustainably large, regardless of the extra room needed for year 7s.
“We are creating 700 additional places to meet the predicted growing demand over the next decade … it is simply not sustainable to extend the current enrolment zones,” Mr Gardner said.
“Furthermore, Labor is undermining confidence in (other) great schools … in which we’ve invested millions of dollars to improve facilities.”
Yesterday, Labor would neither commit to, nor rule out, building a new high school in Adelaide’s inner north to fill the gap between the city and Roma Mitchell at Gepps Cross.
But Adelaide Park Lands Association president Shane Sody hit out at all plans to expand the city school, saying “a massive new high school building … would partly obliterate what little remains of open green public space along the eastern side of Frome Rd”.
“The parklands represent 0.2 per cent of the Adelaide metropolitan area … there is 99.8 per cent of the rest of the Adelaide metropolitan area where you can locate a school or anything else you want,” he said.
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