Kensington Primary parents spending thousands on school fundraisers

Children at Kensington Primary School are selling their toys and books to each other while their parents are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars a year on bake sales and sausage sizzles, in a desperate bid to raise money to fix the rotting school.

Parents at Kensington Primary School have organised a year’s worth of events to raise money for the school.

Parents are forking out $40,000 a year on sausages and trivia nights to raise desperately needed funds to fix Kensington Primary School.

The school has been plagued by issues for at least a decade including leaking and mouldy buildings, rotting floorboards and rooms so hot a teacher fainted.

Construction on a school hall began 10 years ago under Labor’s Building the Education Revolution.

But funding ran out and the hall was ditched leaving upper walls and the ceiling exposed.

Staff has to use portaloos last year because mould was growing in the toilet block.

Other issues at the school include crumbling buildings, mouldy staff toilets, floors marked with tape to stop people walking on the rotting floorboards, and a lack of disability access.

Students are so desperate to rebuild a playground that was torn down last year for safety reasons, they sold their own toys and books to each other last week.

Fundraising committee member Annie Percy said a Grade 2 class organised the sale because they missed the old playground “and wanted to do something to help”.

Parents have been forced to organise fundraising events including weekly sausage sizzles, morning teas, wine drives, trivia nights, lawn bowls, and even silent auctions to raise money for the scores of problems at the school.

The floor of the admin area marked with an X to stop people walking on rotting floorboards.

“With so many schools, kinders, childcare centres relying on business donations, it can be quite tricky getting decent items,” Ms Percy said.

“I know how desperate the school is so I always happily support the various events but can imagine some families just can’t keep handing out money.”

The school has raised the $60,000 needed to replace the cladding in the hall, but also need to come up with $50,000 for a new playground.

The State Government announced last week it would give the school $200,000 but only $14,000 would be available during the next financial year.

Education Minister James Merlino said the government had to “balance and prioritise” the needs of all government schools.

Part of the crumbling school hall.

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The State Government has also announced it will repair storm damage to the school hall and a classroom block, and upgrade a toilet block, in July.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said the school was “in a dire state”.

“The $200,000 provided in this year’s budget is welcome but the reality is more than $1 million in needed to bring Kensington Primary School up to standard.” Ms Ratnam said.

Part of the building fell down above the main entrance last year.

“We will continue to work with the school community, write to the Minister and ask questions of the government until the school has what it needs.”

Parents have already organised a year’s worth of events and have upped this year’s fundraising goal from $40,000 to $50,000 for both the hall and playground to be funded.

The fundraising committee is about to launch a cookbook with recipes contributed by families, and a ‘cinema under the stars’ event is scheduled for September.

“We are currently seeking paid ads from local businesses to assist with printing costs and profitability,” Ms Percy said.