Public forums detail Maroondah Regeneration Project
June 9 2009

Parents of seven secondary schools in the Maroondah Local Government Area have heard details of the Maroondah Regeneration Project in forums held at the Karralyka Centre in the first two weeks of June. At each forum, the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Director, Dr Jim Watterston, the Regional Network Leader, Mr Geoff Flett, and principals of the seven secondary schools in the City of Maroondah described the context for the Maroondah Regeneration Project, initial details and the steps to be taken in the next months.

The context

The context for the Maroondah Regeneration Project is as follows:

1. The percentage of school aged children in the city of Maroondah as a proportion of the total population is declining and will continue to decline over the next twenty years. This is shown in the table at right. This was one of several tables presented at the forums.
2. The government has in place the Building Futures Policy. The policy anticipates support for building projects being conditional on schools meeting a number of criteria, including being able to demonstrate how outcomes for students will be profoundly enhanced by particular proposals. In circumstances like ours, the Building Futures Policy encourages schools to cooperate in preparing submissions.
3. The Maroondah secondary schools - Croydon SC, Heathmont College, Maroondah SC, Norwood, SC, Parkwood SC, Ringwood SC and Croydon Community School, have been cooperating extensively already and have formed the Maroondah Education Coalition (MEC) in previous years.
4. Each school believes that it could offer better targeted and more effective programs if the various schools cooperated in new ways.

The detail

Over the past two years, school councils have prepared a series of joint submissions, using the Building Futures framework, which anticipate five rebuilt secondary schools in the Maroondah area, that is, four mainstream schools and an alternative setting - Croydon Community School, to replace the seven schools that we have now. Of the four mainstream schools, the submissions anticipate one school in the north, one in the east, one in the south and one in the west of the City of Maroondah. Principals have engaged firms of architects and town planners to provide independent and dispassionate advice about the location of these sites. If the independent advice was adopted, the north school, MEC Norwood, would be at the Parkwood SC site. The east school, MEC Croydon, would be at the Maroondah SC site. The south school, MEC Heathmont, would be at the Heathmont College site. The west school, MEC Ringwood, would be at the Ringwood SC site. The Building Futures submission, if fully funded, anticipates an overall approximate cost of $75 million dollars.

The project is intended to create a new way of thinking about secondary education in our area where schools share their resources to provide programs and opportunities that are far beyond the capabilities of any school acting on its own.

The steps forward

In the May state budget, the government provided $1 million to assist the schools to take these plans to the community and to develop them thoroughly. To progress further, the plans must have community support and must be informed by the community’s thinking. At this stage, the government has made no commitment beyond the support already provided. There is no firm timeline for change. Any such timeline would need to reflect the community’s views.

The three forums held from June 1 - 9 are the first steps in an extensive period of community consultation. There will be many opportunities for all schools’ communities to shape and contribute to the plans.

The Maroondah Regeneration Project is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, is genuinely exciting and is worthy of everyone’s deepest consideration.

Dr Michael McNamara

Principal