New high school gets go ahead for Preston Girls’ College site

A NEW high school will be opened in Melbourne’s north at the site of the former Preston Girls’ College which closed three years ago.

Nadya Tkachenko and Marcus Finlay with kids Anastasia 2 and Ronan 5 outside the Preston Girls College, which closed three years ago.

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A NEW high school will be opened in Preston at the site of the former Preston Girls’ College.

State education minister James Merlino announced the school would reopen as a coeducational secondary school for years 7 to 12 with capacity for up to 500 students.

However, the school will not open until at least 2019.

Leader has been campaigning for the school through its Open Our School campaign.

Mr Merlino said it was a great win for the community.

“The community has been campaigning for many years to reopen this school,” Mr Merlino said.

“There is potential for it to grow even further in the future, potentially up to 1000,” Mr Merlino said.

High School for Preston campaigner Nadya Tkachenko said the announcement was fantastic news.

Dan Merlino announces the reopening of a high school in Preston.

“There’s over 3000 primary school kids in Preston who now have the option of attending a local public high school,” she said.

She said the group had hoped for a school to be built by 2019 but wanted an opening date within the next 12 months.

“If we could have more certainty it would be wonderful but we’re really happy,” Ms Tkachenko said.

Mr Merlino said there would need to be a budget allocation for the school and necessary capital improvements before students could attend.

He said the feasibility study showed Preston was a fast-growing community and it would face capacity issues between now and 2025.

The government planned to work with council, planning and public transport authorities to improve bus, bike and walking routes to the school.