Catholic Schools NSW to splash $173 million in building blitz across the state
The Catholic Church will spend $173 million on new facilities and upgrades for 36 of its schools. Check out the full list and what the money will be used for.
NSW
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The Catholic school system will spend $173 million to upgrade 36 of its schools, most of them in Sydney’s southwest and northwest.
As well as building new facilities, the money will also be for a backlog of maintenance and refurbishment.
Revamped and expanded schools will be dotted throughout Sydney’s southwest from Lakemba to Edmondson Park and across to Engadine and Riverwood.
In the city’s northwest schools in Marsden Park, Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, South Windsor and Llandilo will undergo construction.
Schools in regional and rural NSW are also part of the building blitz, from Mullumbimby in the north to Oak Flats in the south and as far west as Bourke.
As well as replacing aged and dysfunctional classrooms, the schools will get everything from cafes to greenhouses and computer fabrication laboratories.
The Catholic school system is getting back enrolments it began losing from early 2018 in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, when some families turned to private schools. A year later the state government committed a record $6.7 billion during the current term of government to building and renovating 190 public schools.
Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney said his organisation needed to play catch-up to maintain and grow its enrolments.
“The Royal Commission impacted on enrolments, but we have since stabilised and there are indications we’re climbing back,” Mr McInerney said.
“We also dropped because our competitors came at us hard and we didn’t respond in time. The state schools started a big capital push two years before we did.
“We have to do more with less but we have gotten smarter with our spend using a more sophisticated approach to the planning and design of our schools.”
One way the Catholic system hopes to gain a competitive edge is by building preschools, primary and secondary on the same site.
The building works were made possible with $300 million from the state coffers, which is to be spread out over four years.
At Oran Park, in one of Sydney’s fastest-growing areas, St Justin’s Primary School is expanding on the same site as St Benedict’s. Both schools will share a new hall at the start of next term as part of the staged construction.
“The investment means we can offer families a truly outstanding education just minutes from where they live,” Principal Kevin Devine said.
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Originally published as Catholic Schools NSW to splash $173 million in building blitz across the state
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