Kariong: Central Coast Sports College plans to increase students to 1200

The region’s fastest growing school is preparing for a steroid-like boost if it gets the nod to increase numbers by as much as 60 per cent without so much as a single new demountable. Here’s how.

An artist’s impression of the new classroom buildings overlooking the Central Coast Sports College’s main oval at Kariong. Picture: supplied

The Central Coast’s fastest growing education institution has plans to double its high school student numbers.

Central Coast Sports College (CCSC) at Kariong has lodged a development application (DA) with council to increase its student numbers from about 750 to 1200 — as much as 60 per cent.

Currently the K-12 college has 305 primary students and 447 secondary students, including 92 in Years 11 and 12.

But given the proposed increase is for mostly secondary students, the influx of 450 enrolments will virtually double the size of its high school.

To cater for more pupils, the college proposes to increase its high school staff from 22 teachers to 36 plus an additional seven support staff.

Central Coast Sports College at Kariong has lodged a DA to increase it’s student numbers by up to 60 per cent. Picture: supplied

“No building works are proposed in this development application, which seeks to better utilise an approved development with a suitable increase in student capacity and accompanying alterations to traffic and parking arrangements on the site,” the DA states.

This earlier “approved development” is in the form of three large classroom blocks, which the school applied for back in 2020.

At an estimated cost of $2m the three buildings — up to two storeys tall and 50m long — provide a dozen new classrooms.

But that development, which was subsequently approved the following year, did not include any increase in student numbers.

Central Coast Sports College is a Kindergarten to Year 12 school. (File image: Sue Graham)

Despite not proposing any more students the school immediately set about installing demountable classrooms, which are deemed “exempt development” until the new classroom blocks are built.

The new DA to increase its maximum student numbers essentially closes the loop on CCSC’s capital works strategy, which could be borrowed from the “if you build it they will come” playbook Kevin Costner’s character adopted in the hit Hollywood baseball flick Field of Dreams.

If you build it, they will come: Central Coast Sports College continues to expand. (File image: supplied)

The previously-approved, but yet to be built classroom blocks, are located in the “Sports Precinct”, east of The Ave.

The college’s existing classrooms in the “Heritage Precinct” are in a mix of older and contemporary buildings leased from the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation, which owns the sporting fields as well as the rest of the sprawling 127.4ha Mount Penang Parklands site.

A traffic report lodged in conjunction with the DA states given the proposed increase in student enrolments will be mostly high school students, who travel by bus, the volume of vehicle movements that will be generated is expected to be minimal and to have no impact local roads.

According to Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority data the Kariong selective sports college was the region’s fastest growing school in the five years to 2022 with enrolments up 94 per cent over the period.

The sports college was contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.