Healesville High School’s principal George Perini discusses his dream for his school to become one of the leading hospitality trainers in the state with MP Fran Bailey and Opposition education spokesman Tony Smith.By Melissa Meehan
HEALESVILLE High School has reignited pressure on the State Government to provide funding to rebuild the school’s facilities.
In the past year, the Mail has reported on the school’s long-running crusade for better learning facilities.
Principal George Perini said the school community would not stop until it got the answers it was looking for.
Combined with an old heating system, Healesville High School students and teachers are faced with leaking ceilings during the winter.
“We want to teach our students in contemporary ways but we need facilities with contemporary basics,” Mr Perini said.
“We want our classrooms to be conducive to learning, we want to be cutting edge and be able to provide our students with the best education facilities that are available.”
Mr Perini said the school had excellent academic achievements despite the lack of facilities and the buildings needing urgent repairs and redevelopment.
“We want to give our students a reason to stay at school and provide them with a direct pathway to a career through the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL),” Mr Perini said.
“We would like to be the leading educator of hospitality in the Yarra Valley.”
“But with our facilities the way they are, it is difficult to offer technical training that the other schools in the area can, forcing our kids to fulfil their practical classes at other sites.”
Last week Mr Perini took local MP Fran Bailey and federal Opposition spokesman for education Tony Smith on a tour around the school.
“Fran and the school council officials are not exaggerating when they say conditions at the school are among the worst in the state,” Mr Smith said.
Ms Bailey said she shared the community’s anger that Healesville High School had not been given the funding needed to redevelop the school.
“This school should have the facilities to become the leading hospitality trainer in the Yarra Valley – it has the location, the industry, the expertise of teachers and local support,” Ms Bailey said.
“They just don’t have the facilities.”
Mr Perini said the school had a lot of new ideas for the future.
“We want to take education in a new direction; we just need to be able to rely on the technology and basic essentials to help us through.”
Victorian Government spokesman Michael Sinclair said the Department had recently visited Healesville Secondary College to inspect buildings and the heating system and continues to work with the school to find the best possible solutions.
“The Brumby Government has invested more than $7 billion in education since 1999 and committing $1.9 billion to rebuild, renovate or extend every Victorian government school over the next 10 years,” Mr Sinclair said.
“We are proud of our strong record on education investment, and we have provided $3 million for a new building at the Healesville Secondary College which included a science and technical upgrades in 2005 and since 2000, have also provided the school with an additional $345,000 for other works.”
