State Government considering new $80m Rostrevor school, leaked documents suggest

The Opposition says a leaked state government document shows plans for a new $80m 7-12 super school in Adelaide’s east.

Millions of dollars will be allocated in the upcoming State Budget towards building a new high school in the wrong area, the opposition says.

Labor has released what it says is a leaked confidential state government document that shows plans to spend more than $80m to construct a new 1200-place, Year 7-12 school at the Norwood Morialta High School Rostrevor Campus, on Morialta Rd West.

However, the government says the document is only a request for funding and a final decision on the project will be revealed when the budget is handed down on June 22.

Students from the Rostrevor Campus, which caters for Years 8 to 10, are transferring to Norwood Morialta High School’s Magill Campus next year as part of a planned consolidation of the two schools.

Labor says a new Rostrevor school is set to be open from the beginning of 2023 for Year 7 students with other students to be enrolled from the start of 2024.

However, it says a new school should be built in the inner northern suburbs, not in Adelaide’s east, because the north has been identified as an area of need.

The Advertiser reported in March that Education Department boss Rick Persse said both city high schools were expected to be hundreds of students over their combined capacity next year and this could lead to a business case being prepared for a new high school to fill the gap between Adelaide Botanic High and Roma Mitchell Secondary College at Gepps Cross.

Opposition education spokesman Blair Boyer suggested the motivation behind the location of the new school was politically-driven.

“Labor supports investment in schools, but it would be interesting to Education Minister John Gardner’s justification for building a new school in his own electorate, when his own department’s boss has highlighted the need for a new school in the inner northern suburbs,” he said.

“Have investigations been undertaken into the competing needs of both areas?”

Mr Boyer also described the disclosed secret document as a “stunning leak of one of the government’s centrepiece announcements for the State Budget” and suggested it sought to undermine Premier Steven Marshall and Mr Gardner.

However, Mr Marshall dismissed this suggestion.

He also said Infrastructure SA – an independent advisory board – earlier this year identified a new school at the Rostrevor Campus as being a priority, and the education department had advised “the most urgent need was actually in the east”.

“We know that our schools in the eastern suburbs have been massively over capacity for an extended period of time whether (it’s) Glenunga, Unley, Marryatville, Norwood-Morialta,” he said.

“There is an increasing population in those areas and a huge pressure, but that’s not to say there aren’t pressures in other areas and as we get advice from the department then we’ll frame our response.”

Treasurer Rob Lucas said the document was “just one of many requests for funding we get each year in the lead up to the state budget”.

“It is not a Cabinet document, it has never been to Cabinet – it’s a document that agencies use in discussions with the Treasurer in preliminary Budget discussions,” he said.

“The Government’s final decision on this and other funding proposals will be revealed when the State Budget is handed down in less than a fortnight.”