Upper Yarra
5 Tuesday, 10 June, 2014
Local candidate for Eildon
25
Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
Celebrating Reconciliation Week
A Mail Newspaper Group publication
26-27
Sports of all sorts
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
School asbestos fear By KATH GANNAWAY
Labor’s James Merlino and Sally Brennan looked over the Education Department’s proposal with Brian Westlake at the school last week. 121818 Picture: KATH GANNAWAY
Mini Digger Hire Track Machine, Various Attachments Available, Stump Grinder, Auger, Trencher, 4 in 1 etc Weekend Rate Available
YARRA VALLEY
andscape
& Ga den YOUR LOCAL SUPPLIER
YARRA RANGES GAS HEAT & COOL
Ph: 5966 9999
mitment at this stage. He said what was being proposed was not a solution that in any way addressed the needs of the school. Asked if Yarra Junction’s bid for $2 million was something Labor was prepared to put on the table as an election promise, he would say only that the situation was being taken seriously. “There has been extraordinary advocacy from the Yarra Junction community to myself and to Sally,” he said adding, however, that they had to look at the needs right across the state and
89 Main Road, Monbulk
Phone: 9752 0488 1098741-RC44-13
Warburton Highway, Wesburn 3799
5967 1367
how much capital there was in the budget. The department spokesman said the proposed relocatable classroom was specially designed for art teaching and learning and that a site inspection would look at siting options. “The needs of the school will be considered as part of future budget deliberations,” he said. A contractor was due to visit the school today (Tuesday) to look at how the proposed plans might be implemented.
1080678-PJ27-13
GET IN EARLY FOR YOUR PRE WINTER HEATER SERVICE CHECK
on, or cut down trees to get it in,” Mr Westlake said. Liberal candidate for the new seat of Eildon, sitting Seymour MP Cindy McLeish, told the Mail in May that she had met with the school council and was advocating for solutions, but ruled out any major funding commitment. Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Education, James Merlino, visited the school last week with Eildon Labor candidate Sally Brennan. He also ruled out any funding com-
1138237-DJ23-14
is also not on,” Mr Westlake said. He said the approach seemed to be a series of band-aid measures. “I think basically they didn’t read the fine print on what was actually being offered and didn’t want to know about any of the issues that we know will make what they are putting forward unworkable,” he said. “There is no way the School Council or the parents of Yarra Junction would stand by and let the Education Department put a portable on the only bit of hard ground the kids have to play
1127608-DJ14-14
THE Yarra Junction Primary School community has given the Education Department a vote of no confidence, saying plans to install a building containing asbestos were changed only after the proposal was challenged. A department document proposing the school’s condemned art building be replaced with a 25-year-old relocatable with an asbestos ceiling was met with disbelief last week. However, a department spokesman assured the Mail late on Friday that the building would not contain asbestos and school council president Brian Westlake confirmed that the school had also been informed on Friday. “It’s just the latest thing in a fluid situation where the story changes every time you speak to someone,” Mr Westlake said. “You just don’t know what to believe, what’s on paper or something else you get verbally once something is pointed out to them,” he said. “It doesn’t inspire confidence.” As reported (Mail, 27 May) the school is calling on the government to replace the condemned communitybuilt art building and two portables that are sinking, with a purpose-built classroom/artroom module they estimate would cost around $2 million. It’s an investment the school council says is long overdue. Mr Westlake told the Mail a visit by Education Department officials on Wednesday, 4 June, did nothing to address their concerns about the inadequate and unsafe working environment for students or the issue of how the department defined government-owned as opposed to community-owned buildings for funding allocation. At that stage, he said, according to the plan the portable they were sending to Yarra Junction had an asbestos ceiling. “With the two portables, they suggested jacking them up and blocking them but are ignoring the fact that in two years’ time we will be back where we started,” he said. “Giving us a 25-year-old building from the portables graveyard, which even if you could get it into the school would have to go on the only bit of sealed ground the kids have to play on,
New Look Made
By Wattyl New Look Ceiling White Kid tough, resists mould & mildew is also low VOC 4Lt $55 & Low Odour 4Lt $45
Low Sheen
Computer Colour Matching OPEN: MON-FRI 6.30am-5.30pm • SAT 8.00am-12.00noon
9737 6833
24d John St., LILYDALE