Push for new Greenvale college fires up despite rezone move

THE push for a new Greenvale secondary school continues despite more of the suburb being included in the Gladstone Park SC zone.

THE Greenvale Resident’s Association will renew its push for a local government secondary school despite more of the suburb being included in the Gladstone Park Secondary School zone.

Under a trial, the zone has been extended to Somerton Rd to the north and will include

families living in the area bounded between the creek on the eastern side and Section Rd on the western side of Greenvale, and it will be reviewed next year.

Enrolments have closed but an Education Department spokesman could not provide figures for the number of Year 7 students from Greenvale who had enrolled.

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The recent State Budget set money aside to buy land for a Greenvale North West Primary School, but did not allocate funding for a Greenvale secondary school, causing an outcry from locals on social media.

Association secretary Charlie Grech said the expansion of the Gladstone Park zone to include Greenvale was a smokescreen to hide the real issue.

“Greenvale residents need a government secondary college,” he said.

“We’ve been promised one for decades and have the land.”

He said the zoning move meant officials could argue that Greenvale secondary students were already in a school catchment.

“The government is playing tricks; it’s had a site for years; they were going to sell it but we fought that and won only to have it sit in limbo,” he said.

“It’s a game of politics; the Gladstone Park zone was only expanded because of us [residents] complaining and making noises.”

He said the school issue would be raised at the association’s June meeting.

Residents on Facebook complained about the large site on Barrymore Rd earmarked for the secondary school being unused.

“It’s been proposed for a school from 1984. It’s why my parents originally bought in Greenvale,” one said.

“We have lived here for 25 years and when we moved here, the locals were complaining back then about this issue,” another said.

“With all the new estates going up around here and young families moving in to the area, the options are limited.”

An Education Department spokesman said: “The one-year trial extension to Gladstone Park Secondary College’s enrolment area means we can explore improving access to the school for families in Greenvale, parts of which already fall within the school’s enrolment area.

“The Department and the Victorian School Building Authority will continue to work with the [Gladstone Park] school to ensure it has the space and the facilities it needs to give kids a great education.”