Principal's victory in battle of the gym

Henry Grosseck has spent much of the past two years in arguments with state and federal governments

IT has been a long hard fight for Henry Grosseck. One of the first school principals to voice his concerns about the implementation of the Building the Education Revolution program in Victoria, Mr Grosseck has spent much of the past two years in arguments with state and federal governments.

It began when Mr Grosseck, the principal of Berwick Lodge Primary School in Melbourne's outer-eastern suburbs, refused to take a $3 million gym from the Victorian Department of Education because his school already had one.

Mr Grosseck did not bow to the department's "collective approach", under which it grouped schools into regions, pooled the federal stimulus money and decided which schools most needed the money.

Mr Grosseck was the first to go public with his concerns. As a result, he managed to negotiate a $2m library and six classrooms instead of the gym, and a guarantee of a $1m companion project. Builders are now constructing the project.

Mr Grosseck said he was "thrilled" schools were being given more control of building projects under the new state Coalition government's policy, and was hoping his school would be among the first.

"Our school council has decided to call on the Baillieu government to let us be their pilot project for school autonomy," he said. "They should have no reason not to do so, given everything we have fought for in the past two years."

Mr Grosseck is writing a book about his experiences.