Mt Alexander College principal calls on education department to buy land next door

Hundreds have signed a petition calling on the State Government to buy land for a school that is bursting at the seams.

Mount Alexander College is booming and Principal Wayne Haworth wants the State Government to purchase the land next door to the school to build vertical classrooms. Picture: Josie Hayden

A petition has been signed by more than 400 people, calling on the State Government to buy land for a Flemington secondary school.

Moonee Valley blogger Rose Iser started the petition two weeks ago to get the Department of Education and Training to buy the land at 177a Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington to accommodate the growth of Mt Alexander Secondary College.

The school had a 250 per cent increase in enrolments in the past two years, and is likely to reach capacity next year.

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The land went to auction on December 6 but was passed in.

The land was valued by realestate.com between $1.6m and $1.76m.

Mt Alexander College principal Wayne Haworth has fought for two years to have the education department buy the land to accommodate the growing number of students enrolling at the school.

Mt Alexander College wants the State Government to buy the land at 177a Mt Alexander Rd so it can expand. The land used to be a petrol station which may be why it has had little interest from developers. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“We are on a very small parcel of land, about 1.2 hectares, and the average secondary school is 3.5 hectares,” he said.

Mr Haworth approached Essendon state Labor MP Danny Pearson twice asking the State Government to buy the land.

Mr Pearson said he had approached and been rejected by the education department twice because it was a “tiny” amount of land.

However, Mr Pearson said he would try again in the context of the Flemington Education Plan; which will focus on schools and student performance in Flemington, Travancore, Ascot Vale and Moonee Ponds.

Mr Haworth acknowledged the land for sale was small, but said it should not be looked at in isolation.

He said the small carpark next to the land was barely used by staff and could be combined with the land for sale to create enough space for a new building.

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