Group lobbies for new public high school at Bondi Junction
A GRASSROOTS lobby group is set to super charge their campaign for another eastern suburbs public high school in the lead up to next year’s state election.
Wentworth Courier
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A GRASSROOTS lobby group is set to super charge their campaign for another eastern suburbs public high school in the lead up to next year’s state election.
Community for Local Options for Secondary Education (CLOSE) East is calling for a new vertical school at Bondi Junction.
The group will hold a public meeting tonight at 7pm at the Charring Cross Hotel to rally supporters.
A 14-storey high school due to open on the old Cleveland Street Intensive English High School site in Surry Hills in 2020 was announced by the Department of Education late last year after considerable lobbying by the same group.
CLOSE East spokeswoman Licia Heath has addressed both Woollahra and Waverly Councils in recent months and they have both passed motions ensuring their planning controls would accommodate the development.
Ms Heath says the group will formally present a petition containing 5500 signatures to Shadow Education Minister Jihad Dib on the steps of NSW Parliament House on May 23.
“We’re concerned that other electorates around NSW are being allocated new schools ahead of the state seats of Vaucluse and Coogee, even though the capacity crisis is worse in the east,” Ms Heath said.
“Why would that be?
“Is it because seats in the east are such blue ribbon Liberal seats that our concerns are not addressed or we don’t get budget allocation like we would if were in swinging seats?”
Vaucluse Mp Gabrielle Upton who has met with the group wouldn’t commit to a new school but did lend her support to the cause.
“I am always advocating for the best possible education and facilities for my local school students,” she said.
“I speak regularly to the education minister and his department about delivering the best possible outcomes for them not just now, but into the future.”
The eastern suburbs was once home to three public high schools.
In 1982 Dover Heights Boys and Girls High Schools were combined and a further merger was done with Vaucluse High School in 2003 to form Rose Bay Secondary College.
The sole public high school in the eastern suburbs has a catchment area spanning from Hornby Lighthouse south to Bronte and west to Paddington.
As of the start of the school year enrolment had surged to 1240 — up from 1132 last year.
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