Glenunga International High to grow to 2200 students with $29 million upgrade

Forget super schools, this is going to be mega. A suburban high school is being funded to grow to 2200 students. But how big is too big? SEE THE SCHOOLS THAT ARE GETTING FUNDING

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Glenunga International High will become a mega school for 2200 students, a rise of about 400, in a $29 million upgrade to cope with the introduction of Year 7s and other enrolment pressures.

But the State Government, which has enraged parents it shifted out of the city school zone, baulked at the cost of expanding Adelaide High’s capacity to the 2400-2500 it says would have been required to avoid the rezoning.

Education Minister John Gardner has announced $65 million to expand Glenunga, Norwood Morialta, Brighton and Unley high schools.

The Government previously announced $18 million to boost Adelaide High’s capacity by 350 to 1800.

Glenunga High is set to grow to 2200 students — a rise of about 400. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Mr Gardner said the investment it would have taken to lift Adelaide High’s capacity towards 2500 would have “dwarfed” expenditure on other schools.

Norwood Morialta will receive $10 million to consolidate on its Magill campus and rise to 1700 enrolments. It will no longer use its Rostrevor campus.

Brighton Secondary is getting $13.8 million to grow to 1800 places by 2022. But it will no longer be able to take enrolments from outside its zone, except into its special interest programs.

As The Advertiser revealed yesterday, $12.5 million for Unley High means it can grow enough to keep taking out of zone enrolments.

Asked if the funding would guarantee no zone changes for Glenunga, Norwood Morialta, Brighton or Unley, Mr Gardner said: “It’s as good a guarantee as you are going to get.”

The reduction of the shared zone for Adelaide High and Adelaide Botanic High means hundreds of families are now zoned to Underdale High, Plympton International High and Springbank Secondary instead.

Adelaide Botanic High School opened earlier this year. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

The Opposition has blamed the move on the Government failing to plan properly for implementing its policy of shifting Year 7 into high school by 2022.

But Mr Gardner said: “The former (Labor) government hadn’t provisioned sufficient capacity in our high schools, irrespective of Year 7s going in.

“The Opposition, I don’t know if they wanted to rack, pack and stack students or have classrooms in corridors, they haven’t explained what they would have done.

“Maybe they would have cancelled all the special entry programs. We believe they are an important equity measure in our system.

“Moving Year 7 is hard and it is important work. We are up to that important task and funding it as needs to be for the best interests of our students.”