THE final green-light has been given for a $10 million facilities upgrade at Gawler & District College.

Work is expected to now commence in the coming months, after the project recently received approval from the Public Works Committee of State Parliament.

The project will see the birth to year 12 school expand to accommodate the transition of year seven into high school by 2022, and will feature several additional learning areas, a brand new entry way and parenting portal, a new specialist unit, and a large-scale outdoor covered pavilion.

College principal Angie Michael said the build will incorporate both new facilities and the refurbishment of existing, ultimately supporting the growth of the school from 1350 students to 1425.

The first build will be a new integrated front office space and parent portal to service both the junior and secondary school.

The existing administrative area will then be refurbished as a dedicated year 12 study and office space.

Following the removal of the existing shelter sheds and older classrooms at the centre of the school, work can also begin on the brand-new pavilion – hailed as the first of its scale and type at a school in South Australia.

Ms Michael said the unique space is one of the hallmarks of the whole project and will be able to be used across all year levels for learning and gathering, as well as by the wider community when it comes to Book Week, presentation evenings, and the annual Summer Carnival.

“It will incorporate a staged area and then there will be some general learning areas against the stage that will include a weights gym and then two physical education general learning areas and then a media suite,” she said.

“Then we are going to have a brand new canteen, we’ve got purpose-built agriculture/home economics classrooms, and we will have brand new toilets as well.”

Separately a brand new special unit will accommodate new 21st century learning and also support 21st century pedagogical practice for students with disabilities.

All works are hoped to be completed by April, 2021.

Concern over project exclusions

MEMBER for Light Tony Piccolo has welcomed the start of Gawler and District College’s $10 million redevelopment project, but has raised concerns with the distribution of funds.

Speaking at the Public Works Committee Mr Piccolo said the project would bring much needed facilities, but expressed disappointment the school will be using its own internal budget to cover the cost of the removal of existing transportable buildings and asbestos.

“We have a school here which is financially doing it tough,” he said.

“It serves a broad community but essentially a community which has limited resources and those resources are now going to be used for part of this project, which is disappointing.

“My understanding is that as a result of the need to build additional classrooms for the new year seven students, to accommodate them in the project brief, they have actually had to pick up some of the additional costing themselves from their budget.”

Mr Piccolo said another concern is that money now allocated to providing new additional classrooms, has had to be redirected away from the upgrade of older classrooms.

“I have also been made aware that some of the buildings which have been recently upgraded for STEM facilities are actually already showing cracks and decay,” Mr Piccolo said.

“So one has to actually start asking at what point some of these buildings need to be demolished and actually rebuilt.”