Doreen school without sheltered walkways as winter approaches

Two months after it was revealed students were sweltering at a new Doreen school without air con, now they’re facing winter without covered walkways or a playground. And parents need to fundraise a staggering amount to fix the problems.

Ashley Park Primary school parents are fundraising for essential facilities.

Two months after it was revealed students were sweltering at a new Doreen primary school without air con, now they’re facing winter without covered walkways or a playground.

Students at Ashley Park Primary, which opened this year, are still waiting for vital school infrastructure, with parents trying to raise $160,000 for a playground, shade sails, airconditioning and sheltered walkways.

The Leader reported in March students had no proper shade or cooling.

Parent committee vice president Ellie Langlands said the school had raised $3000 since March, but the figure was nowhere near their target.

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She said $100,000 would help fund outdoor shade sails, a paved playground and air onditioning in two of the four school buildings.

She also forecast a further $60,000 for walkway covers, so children could walk to their classes beneath shelter in inclement weather.

“We’ve had raffles, hot cross bun drives, costume days — it’s a start but an extremely long way off from where we need to be,” she said.

“We simply can’t ask parents to donate thousands of dollars — it’s a near-impossible situation.”

Students at Ashley Park Primary School in Doreen have no shade.

Ms Langlands said funding for non-existent cover between classrooms had now become a concern as winter drew closer.

“It simply is a wonder why there are no sheltered walkways — it was not a well-thought out plan,” she said.

Ashley Park Primary council president Clinton Fullgrabe said the school was trying to get more financial support from the state government and was doing the best it could with the resources it had.

Mr Fullgrabe told the Leader the Department of Education advised the school “unfavourable tenders” had caused the budget to provide “core” infrastructure only — this included buildings, landscaping, a multipurpose hard court and sports oval.

Mr Fullgrabe also told the Leader the Department would commit to provide contingency funding for two shade sails and a Prep—Grade 2 playground.

“The school council is currently working on a fundraising strategy which includes events, community engagement activities and possible crowd funding activities,” he said.

Mr Fullgrabe said the school had a wet-weather strategy in place to ensure children walked between classes safely.

“The design of the buildings as a modern and flexible learning environment means most the learning activities occur in the two large learning buildings,” he said.

“Also children are always supervised when moving from to and from the ironbark sport and preforming arts building.”

The Department of Education said “additional funds” were recently provided for the installation of outdoor shade sails and a junior playground.

But Ashley Park Primary will not be eligible to receive money for airconditioning as priority is awarded to schools with the highest needs based on climate zone locations and for certain high-need building types.

A total of $13.806 million was allocated towards the school in the 2017-18 state budget.

The school received an additional $5.27 million in the 2018-19 state budget.

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