Hobart High Community: Parents make demands for new Hobart inner-city high school

Parents in central Hobart say the State Government needs to finally build a high school in the inner-city area, with families running out of options.

Taroona High School is nearly at capacity with enrolments. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

A GROUP of parents says the time has come to build a new high school in inner-city Hobart following years of watery suggestions and inaction by the State Government.

The Hobart High Community, which consists of about a dozen primary school parents who say they represent hundreds of others via a new Facebook page, held its first meeting on Saturday amid concerns the issue was being “ignored” by politicians.

Spokesman Ben Peelman said the parents were concerned that Taroona High School was “bursting at the seams” and poorly serviced by public transport, that New Town High and Ogilvie were not coeducational, and that Cosgrove was located far away from central Hobart families, who would face traffic congestion on their daily commutes.

Ben Peelman. Picture: SUPPLIED

“There are reports of students not being able to get on the buses because they’re already full by the time they get there,” Mr Peelman said of public transport to Taroona.

Mr Peelman said suggestions a high school should be built into Elizabeth College were problematic as it had no green space.

He instead suggested the St John’s precinct in Creek Rd or the Sandy Bay university precinct “because they’re gradually moving out”, as better options.

MORE: EDUCATION MINISTER QUIZZED ON NEW INNER-CITY HIGH SCHOOL

Mr Peelman said the group’s perfect outcome would be a new high school close to central Hobart, with green space, convenient public transport options and even bicycle access.

“Not everyone in the centre of Hobart is actually well-paid and they do rely on the state education system, and they consider a gendered high school to be perhaps archaic,” he said.

The State Government announced in 2017 it was considering a new high school in central Hobart and had set aside $300,000 for infrastructure planning.

The feasibility study, completed last year, found a new high school in the inner city “would not necessarily resolve capacity pressures in Hobart school, specifically Taroona”.

An education spokesperson said the department had “widened the scope of its investigations” to determine the best solution and had consulted with all schools in central Hobart.

As of 2019, school enrolment figures in central Hobart government schools were Taroona with 1096 students, New Town High with 706, Ogilvie with 640 and Cosgrove with 178.