By Robyn Grace and Noel Towell
A critical $10 million upgrade to Victoria’s oldest school for deaf children has been stalled for four years amid a financial stoush between the state government and the charity that controls the historic St Kilda Road site.
The Victorian College for the Deaf says its 53 students are being denied educational opportunities available to other children and are forced to learn on a site that is dilapidated in some parts and unsafe in others.
Victorian College for the Deaf school council president Gabrielle Quinlan with her daughter Zoe (left) and student Sophie.Credit: Eddie Jim
Deaf Children Australia wants the state government to pay market rent for the 164-year-old school’s occupation of the site – which would replace the $1-a-year peppercorn deal that’s been in place since the 1920s – before the charity will agree to a new lease for the school.
Neither party would confirm the sums being discussed, but it is understood that the charity is prepared to accept an annual rental value determined by the state’s Valuer-General’s office.
But the ambiguous legal status of the land has complicated the lease negotiations.
Deaf Children Australia claims a freehold interest, while the state agency Victorian School Building Authority says the St Kilda Road landmark is permanently reserved Crown land that the charity merely holds in trust for the state.
Victorian College for the Deaf principal Marg Tope says her school wants the same as other schools.Credit: Eddie Jim
The impasse has twice put the planned overhaul back to the planning stage, and amid the delays, soaring building costs have bitten an estimated 20 per cent out of the purchasing power of a $10 million government grant that was announced in 2020.
The college, the only P-12 school in Victoria that teaches in Auslan and English, is currently operating under a temporary lease until December 24 while Deaf Children Australia and the building authority negotiate.
Children at other specialist schools across the state that won grant funding through the $380 million upgrade program announced four years ago are preparing to move into their completed new facilities.
But there had not been a “shovel in the ground” at the Victorian College for the Deaf, according to principal Marg Tope.
Deaf Children Australia’s headquarters, adjacent to the Victorian College for the Deaf (left).Credit: Eddie Jim
She said the capital works were critical, but the school community had been forced to top up the grant with $1.6 million of its own money to build a much-needed gym, art room and science lab. Rising damp in some buildings and a damaged fence along the school’s southern boundary were some of the problems that needed addressing, she said.
“We just want the same as any other government school,” Tope said.
“We want certainty, predictability, autonomy of the site and to be able to have our 21st century teaching and learning spaces.”
The state building authority told the school this month that a new long-term lease – without which building work cannot begin – was still at least several months away.
“The Department [of Education]’s standard position is to not commence with substantial capital works until appropriate security of tenure is achieved, due to the unacceptable risk imposed on the project,” the authority said.
The Victorian College of the Deaf site was once earmarked for a new state high school. That plan ended in 2015 when Deaf Children Australia sold a parcel of land to the neighbouring Wesley College for $19 million.
School council president Gabrielle Quinlan, whose daughter Zoe is in year eight at the school, said it was well-known that lease discussions were going to be challenging, but said the department was not providing transparency on the negotiations.
“As a parent, I’m furious,” she said.
Gabrielle Quinlan, pictured with Zoe and Sophie. “As a parent, I’m furious,” she says.Credit: Eddie Jim
A Department of Education spokesperson did not answer questions about the school’s capital works, but said the government remained committed to re-negotiating the lease agreement with Deaf Children Australia.
“There will be no disruption to the school’s outstanding teaching and learning programs,” the spokesperson said.
Deaf Children Australia executive director David Wilson also did not answer questions about the lease negotiations or the stalled capital works.
But he said the charity was proud of its “deep and enduring” association with the Victorian College of the Deaf.
“We look forward to the next chapter of this partnership,” Wilson said.
“We are pleased to report we are in the advanced discussions with the Department of Education.
“Our shared objective is to ensure we can properly accommodate the contemporary needs of the college, including its desire for a larger footprint and more open space, while ensuring [Deaf Children Australia] is able to provide the programs and services we provide to the wider deaf and hard-of-hearing community.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.