Mount Barker High reveals plans for $6 million school expansion
Mount Barker High has revealed final concept plans for its $6 million expansion with works expected to start after Easter.
Adelaide Hills
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Construction of Mount Barker High’s much anticipated $6 million expansion is set to start after Easter.
Final concept plans were released to The Adelaide Hills News this week, showcasing a fresh-new look of facilities and grounds for what will become the region’s largest State school.
Phase one will incorporate four new classrooms being built into a gym, followed by phase two redevelopment of the English and HAAS areas.
Principal Warren Symonds said the expansion had been a long-time coming and would assist the school with ever increasing student numbers.
This includes Year 7s moving into High School from 2022 and an influx of new residents to Mount Barker.
“This school will significantly grow over the next eight to 10 years, up to 1400 students. “We’re anticipating that by 2022, we’ll be sitting just below 1000 kids, so we’ll be getting 300 more in the next 18 months.
“That’s a huge growth for us but the increase in student numbers is something we’ve been experiencing for some time.
“Five years ago we were at 470 students and currently we sit at 705 students, that’s a decent growth and even our Year 8 enrolment numbers are up.”
Mr Symond said building works were scheduled to commence after Easter – pending possible future restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19.
“We hope that these building works will be finished around April, May, June next year, which means that if all goes well, they will start work just after Easter,” he said.
“We’ll initially be building four classrooms on the side of the gym. Those classrooms, they will be multi-use rooms, so you can open them up into one large space if desired.
“We’ll then move onto the main part of the school, where we’ll demolish existing walls and then rebuild new classrooms.
“The idea is that we’ll have a lot more glass, to create a brighter environment for students so they can see what’s going on around them and don’t feel trapped.”
