After nine years, school's back in
By Rachel
Kleinman
Monday, May 13, 2002
Fitzroy families celebrated last week after the State
Government allocated $6 million for Fitzroy High School's redevelopment.
The Budget brought good tidings for residents who fought passionately
to resurrect the school after it was closed nine years ago.
Community for Fitzroy High secretary Antony McPhee said the money should
be enough to get the project off the ground.
A Fitzroy High planning committee, comprising Education Department representatives
and members of the community, was due to approve a master plan for the
site last week.
"Then we are expecting to forward it to the department for approval
within the next two weeks, so the timing of this announcement is great,"
Mr McPhee said.
The master plan includes classrooms to accommodate 375 students from years
7 to 10, a technology room, a library and facilities for trainee teachers.
State Labour Richmond MP Richard Wynne also welcomed the announcement.
"The people of North Fitzroy fought the school's closure and blockaded
the site for 14 months," Mr Wynne said.
"Now they can look forward to a new school with 21st-century educational
facilities and providing much-needed secondary school spaces for the area."
The Michael St. site was used by Kangan Batman TAFE until six years ago.
Plans for the new school include demolition of one three-storey building
at the back of the site, and the construction of a new building on the
western side.
Mr McPhee said the community wanted the school opened in 2003.
The $6 million contribution was part of a $44.3 million Budget package
for the construction of new schools and major redevelopments at several
sites across Melbourne.
Copyright © The Melbourne Yarra Leader 2002.
Green classrooms to take place of school asbestos hazard
By Ingrid
Svendsen
Wednesday, April 10,
2002
An asbestos-contaminated eye-sore will be demolished
and a new two-storey "green" building built under plans for
the soon-to-be reopened Fitzroy Secondary College.
The new classroom block, which will include sustainable design features
such as passive solar light, will be built on the school's Michael Street
frontage, now occupied by portable buildings.
Its classrooms will replace those in the asbestos-riddled building on
the western side of the site, earmarked for demolition under a new master
plan.
While the government initially planned to decontaminate and renovate the
1970's brown-brick building, a planning committee overseeing the reopening
has disregarded this option because of the cost.
The secretary of Community for Fitzroy High and a member of the planning
committee, AnTony McPhee, said the building was riddled with asbestos,
which was sprayed onto its steel frame as a fire retardant. Decontaminating
it would entail stripping the structure down to the frame and rebuilding
it, he said.
Mr McPhee said other costs, including installing lifts to provide disabled
access, made refurbishing the building uneconomical.
The architects' master plan, handed to members of the planning committee
a fortnight ago, gives the first glimpse of what the school will look
like when it reopens next year or in 2004.
Portable buildings along Michael Street will go under the plan, while
the red-brick Edwardian wing will be extensively refurbished. The gymnasium
will also be retained, and basketball courts are likely to be built on
the adjacent asbestos building site.
The government plans to spend an estimated $5 million re-establishing
the school, which was shut amid outcry in a wave of school closures by
the Kennett government in 1992.
Mr McPhee said the master plan included extra classrooms, to allow the
school to run an "innovative" junior years program.
Under the pilot scheme, aimed at easing the transition from primary school,
year seven and eight students would have permanent desks in their own
home classroom, instead of moving around the school for lessons.
The new school will also include a teacher-training facility.
The president of community for Fitzroy High, David Brant, called on the
new Education Minister, Lynne Kosky, to guarantee the school could open
next year.
Mr Brant said parents needed to know where to send their children next
year.
Copyright © The Melbourne Times Ltd 2002.
After 10 years, a suburb gets its high school back
By James
Madden
Monday March 11, 2002
LAST October several hundred people crammed the grounds
of Fitzroy High School in Melbourne's inner north, nervously waiting for
an announcement from the then Victorian Education Minister, Mary Delahunty.
It had been 10 years since the school was closed by the newly elected
Liberal Party government of Premier Jeff Kennett.
The decision to close 380 schools in 1992 was met with community outrage.
Talkback radio was flooded with angry callers, and suburban parents turned
into social activists overnight, organising rostered sit-ins at several
of the targeted schools.
Fitzroy High supporters protested longer than those of any other school,
maintaining their sit-in for 15 months, but the battle was suspended in
1994. The bureaucrats had won - at least for the time being.
But in 1998, the fight was renewed with the establishment of the Community
for Fitzroy High lobby group. Since then it has recruited more than 200
members and encouraged hundreds more to support the school's reopening.
Almost 10 years after the school had closed, the community again came
together to hear if their lobbying was to be rewarded.
"It was quite an emotional day. There were people who had been involved
with the school for decades, and others who were obviously hoping to send
their children there in the future," says local parent Meg Montague,
a longtime supporter of the school and an active member of lobby group.
Despite numerous obstacles and some opposition from schools in neighbouring
districts, the minister announced the school would reopen, "possibly
in 2003 but guaranteed by 2004".
"It brought at tear to the eye - just the joy of knowing we would
have a local school for our children to attend. It was a great day for
the community," Montague says.
Since then, the Government has confirmed Fitzroy High School will reopen
next year, taking a yet-to-be-determined number of Year 7 students. It
is hoped that by 2006, the school will cater for Years 7-10, and eventually
it will have Years 11-12.
Community for Fitzroy High president David Brant says working with the
lobby group made him realise the importance of the school to the local
community.
"The impact of the closure wasn't confined to the teachers and the
schoolchildren. A real sense of loss could also be seen in the wider community,"
says Brant, a retired schoolteacher and longtime Fitzroy resident.
"There was a strong feeling that a vital element of the community
had been taken away."
Brant estimates that in the 10 years since the school was closed, almost
1000 local residents and friends of the school have lobbied the Victorian
government to have it reopened.
"People from all walks of life have supported the school, showing
how important it is to the area," he says. "When it first closed
about 300 protestors staged a rostered sit-in for 15 months. And in the
past three years at least 700 people have written to or emailed the government
in support of the school.
"Lobbying hard and lobbying clever was our secret."
The collective effort of Fitzroy and neighbouring suburbs has eventually
reaped dividends, but the result is an exception rather than the norm.
Last year, former NSW Education Minister John Aquilina announced the closure,
or "reorganisation", of up to 20 primary and high schools in
inner Sydney to free up $100 million for investment in public education.
Despite prolonged outrage from local communities, the Carr Government
is pressing ahead with the sale of several school properties and merging
others.
In Victoria, about 13 new schools have been established or slated to open
since the Bracks Government took office in October 1999. But only two
of 380 schools that were closed in the Kennett Government's 1992 purge
have been reopened.
"We can't change what happened in the past. Our aim now is to open
new schools in areas of need," says Lynne Kosky, who last month took
over the education portfolio from Mary Delahunty.
"In the case of Fitzroy High, there was a strong element within the
local population that wanted to send their children to a public school
in the area and it was important that we provided that school.
"Of course, it wasn't an overnight decision. The community had to
present a case that they had the population now and in the longer term
to sustain the reopening of the school."
Community for Fitzroy High secretary Antony McPhee says the battle to
reopen the school highlighted the plight of education in inner-city Melbourne.
"It wasn't as if students could be sent to other schools in the area,"
McPhee says.
"There are other local schools but they were all full and they were
turning students away.
"The bureaucracy's attitude was that a lot of middle-class families
had moved into the area, and a strong public school in the area wasn't
a priority.
"They assumed a lot of the local community could educate their kids
through the private system."
Now that Fitzroy High has been given the green light to reopen, McPhee
says the immediate priorities are to recruit more students for next year's
Year 7 intake and to develop a charter for the school's future.
"We want it to be more than just a high school. The plan is for it
to be a demonstration school," he says. "We're hoping to showcase
different ways of teaching, perhaps even introduce the Real World teaching
method used in Queensland, where students in years seven and eight are
taught as they are in primary schools, with one teacher covering the basic
subjects.
"Either way, we'll be starting the school from scratch, so it's a
great opportunity to make it the kind of school the community wants for
its children."
Copyright © The Australian Ltd 2002.
Call for answers on Fitzroy school site
By Ingrid
Svendsen
Wednesday, February 27,
2002
Supporters of the proposed Fitzroy Secondary College
have called for speedy decisions on the future of the school site by the
new Education Minister, Lynne Kosky.
The president of Community for Fitzroy High, David Brant, said work could
not start on the school component of the site until the State Government
decided what other facilities would be located there.
Two years ago a report by former Labor Education Minister Barry Pullen
recommended that the Michael Street site be used to house teacher training,
junior university and adult education facilities, as well as a year seven
to 12 secondary school.
While the government has committed to re-opening the school, Mr Brant
said no work could start because a master plan had not been finalised.
Mr Brant, a government-appointed planning committee member, said ministerial
input was urgent as the community wanted the school for teaching next
year. Richmond MLA Dick Wynne said this month's cabinet reshuffle would
not delay the project.
Copyright © The Melbourne Times Ltd 2002.
Big Changes mooted for education
By WILLIAM
BIRNBAUER
Saturday 16 February 2002
In a bid to engage and stimulate students between years five and 10, Victoria's new Education Minister Lynne Kosky is proposing radical changes aimed at breaking down the barriers between primary, secondary and higher-education learning.
Ms Kosky said she wanted to "excite the curriculum" for children who tended to drift in the middle school years. Education should be seen as the norm by young people rather than "something that's a bit of a drag".
To achieve this, it needed to be recognised that "one size doesn't fit all students".
She envisages more links between primary and secondary schools, TAFE institutes, universities, as well as businesses and local utilities.
It would involve expanding curriculums by pooling school resources, having teachers working across schools, and students moving beyond one school and spending time with businesses and community organisations.
Teachers also had to think of teaching in new ways to connect with and encourage students. They needed time to reflect and talk to other teachers about ideas.
"They need the head space as well as the challenge," said Ms Kosky. "If you excite teachers, you excite students."
She said professional development was critical for teachers and should be linked with an outside institution, preferably a university.
Opposition education spokesman Phil Honeywood said the former Coalition government had introduced vocational training in years 11 and 12 in 1996 but would be concerned about extending the concept to years five and six.
"It's one thing to have flexibility, it's another to typecast students at too young an age as being academic or non-academic. I would have real concerns about making decisions about a young person's academic orientation or otherwise at year five and six level."
Ms Kosky replaced Mary Delahunty in a ministerial reshuffle announced on Monday. She was in London on ministerial business when told of her promotion by Premier Steve Bracks. Ms Kosky has been the Minister for Post Compulsory Education, Training and Employment since Labor's election in 1999 and will retain this responsibility.
Ms Kosky said she had seen an example of the type of change she favoured at a primary school with links with a local water board. "Kids learn at a very practical level as well as at a scientific level about water usage, recycling and other issues around the environment."
Curriculums also could be broadened if schools with specialist programs such as languages, technology and science taught students from other schools.
A group of schools could decide to bring in an expert in robotics or surfboard design for a term and spread the course across several schools. This might be one way of "distinguishing the public education system from the private".
Ms Kosky said she regarded measured outcomes in retention rates, literacy and numeracy, and class sizes as critical to improving education.
Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2002.
Re-opening gives Fitzroy a High
By Ingrid
Svendsen
Wednesday, October 24,
2001
“ALL victims are here,” read a cryptic message on a
blackboard in one of the long deserted Fitzroy Secondary College classrooms.
But at the weekend, as the State Government confirmed the school’s re-opening
by 2004, there were no victims – only the victorious.
About 100 people turned out under brilliant sunshine to hear the long-awaited
official announcement of the school’s re-establishment.
Former teachers, old students, grandparents, veteran campaigners and many
prospective members of the classes of 2004 and beyond crowded the balloon-bedecked
school.
Education Minister Mary Delahunty pledged a “modern, contemporary, forward-looking
Fitzroy High” catering for about 300 year seven to 10 students.
But there was plenty of nostalgia too for the heroes of a 14-month campaign
of civil disobedience that saved the school from the wrecker’s ball after
the Kennett Government closed it in 1992.
Ms Delahunty lauded the community’s fighting spirit. “You literally put your bodies on the line. Your struggle impeded
the bulldozers and today your struggle is vindicated,” she said.
Richmond MLA Dick Wynne, who was instrumental in securing government support
for the re-opening, said the school would be a fantastic community asset.
“You don’t give up on communities,” he said.
Two former teachers, Sue Muscatt and Robyn Wright, turned out in their
official “Class of ’93 occupation team” souvenir T-shirts.
The pair came to Fitzroy after the Cain Government closed their previous
school, Exhibition High, in 1987.
Angered that Fitzroy was viewed simply as “prime real estate”, they defied
the Kennett Government “gag” on teachers and took part in the occupation.
For months they were on the roster of overnight guardians of the site,
standing “side by side” with parents who formed the backbone of the crusade.
The former school council chairman, Brian Sullivan, admitted there were
times, as he shivered through winter nights on a makeshift bed at the
school’s office, that he didn’t think the campaign could be won.
Mr Sullivan, whose son was in year eight when the Kennett Government closed
the school, said he was fired by “sheer bloody anger”.
Another campaign veteran, Juris Ots, also spent many nights sleeping on
a mattress on the floor at the school.
”There were so many of us who were so angry about the process.
There was no natural justice.
They just came in and said this is not the place for a school.
This is the place for apartments.”
Mr Ots was no longer involved in the campaign but said: “I’ll be here
watching when the kids go back on the first day.
It’ll be great.”
The State Government will this week announce a planning committee to oversee
the re-opening process. It
will include the President and Secretary of the Community for Fitzroy
High group, David Brant and AnTony McPhee.
Under plans outlined by Ms Delahunty on Sunday, $5 million will be spent
renovating the school to allow year seven and eight classes to start by
2004. Ms Delahunty also left
the way open for the school to eventually offer years 11 and 12.
Mr McPhee welcomed a commitment by Ms Delahunty that classes could start
as early as 2003. He said
his organization would be “trying our hardest to make that happen”.
Mr McPhee said only a couple of classrooms needed renovation to allow
a year seven intake in 2003. Classes
could also be run at other local schools such as Princes Hill Secondary
College, he said.
Mr McPhee said the planning committee would consult the community to find
out what sort of school local parents wanted.
Copyright © The Melbourne Times Ltd 2001.
Kennett school closure reversed
From AAP
Sunday, 21st October 2001
THE Victorian government will reopen the Fitzroy Secondary College in 2003, almost a decade after it was closed by the Kennett government.
The school was shut in 1992 under the former Liberal government's controversial education reform agenda that closed 380 schools around the state.
Parents and community members staged a 14-month sit-in at the school to stop it from being demolished, involving a roster of more than 300 people.
Education Minister Mary Delahunty said handing back the keys to the college was a "seminal moment" for the Bracks government's education reform program.
She said the sit-in was a symbolic gesture of defiance and provided the rallying call to Victoria's true believers in public education.
The Bracks government established a review of the closure, which recommended the school be reopened as a stand-alone secondary college.
Ms Delahunty said it was hoped the school would reopen to year seven students in 2003, but if not then in 2004 with year seven and eight students.
The school, which was used as a TAFE college for several years and now only houses a community gymnasium, would eventually provide a year seven to 10 program for more than 300 students, she said.
It would also be developed into a centre of excellence focusing on innovative programs for middle school students, and have a demonstration unit for trainee teachers.
"Following discussions with other schools in the area, the decision will be made about also providing a full VCE program and expanding to years 11 and 12," Ms Delahunty said.
Ms Delahunty will hand back the keys to the college at midday today.
© 2001 Herald and Weekly Times
School fight ends with a win for community
By MELISSA
MERINO
Sunday 21 October 2001
After a community-led battle lasting longer than a whole generation of students, the State Government will today announce that Fitzroy Secondary College will reopen.
While too late for the children of the original protesters to benefit, the school may now cater for their children. The last intake of students passed through the school in 1992 and are now in their 20s.
One of the first of the 380 schools to be closed by the Kennett government, Fitzroy Secondary College could open as soon as 2003. Education Minister Mary Delahunty has promised that the school - the first secondary college in the state to be reopened - will be ready, at the latest, for the first day of term in 2004.
It will initially cater for year 7 and 8 students. Eventually it will provide year 7 to 10 programs for more than 300 students and will also house a School Centre for Excellence, which will focus on innovative programs for middle-year students.
A decision on whether to expand the curriculum to include the final VCE years will be made after discussion with other schools in the area, Ms Delahunty said.
A huge crowd of parents, students and local community members who have fought to save the school is expected at the site today to welcome the announcement.
David Brant, who has lobbied government with the Community for Fitzroy High for 18 months, will be there, thrilled that he will now have the chance to send his seven-year-old to the local high school.
But Mr Brant said it would have been impossible without the efforts of the original protesters, who blockaded the school when it was first closed, occupied the building for more than 14 months and stopped the prime site in North Fitzroy from being sold.
Brian Sullivan had a son in year 8 and was chairman of the Fitzroy Secondary College school council when the news came, "like a bombshell" in the lead-up to final exams, that the school would be closed.
When it was shut at the end of the year the community rallied. For 14 months, more than 200 people became involved in the peaceful occupation of the school, day and night.
"We fought to hang on to it as a public education facility for the future and the future's now come," said Mr Sullivan, who still lives in the area. "It really is very satisfying. You don't often see those struggles come to a good end."
Ms Delahunty praised the original protesters for keeping the site in public hands when many other closed schools were subdivided and sold.
"The land still belongs to the Education Department because these parents in this community literally put their bodies on the line," she said.
"It might sound very corny but it's quite clear that this school was a symbol of the community's belief that public education would not be trampled by any government."
The parents' occupation was stopped when a deal was struck with Batman TAFE to use the school as an education site, but the site is now disused and has become rundown.
In March this year a committee chaired by former Labor state education minister Barry Pullen recommended the site be reopened as a secondary college and local parents began cleaning up the grounds.
Ms Delahunty would not reveal how much the reopening would cost but said significant works were needed - in effect building a new school from the shell of an old one.
Mr Sullivan said it was a tribute to the strength of the local community that the fight had been maintained by a new generation of parents who had effectively lobbied the current government to reopen the school.
Mr Brant, who lives around the corner from the site, said the school was needed for the growing number of young families in the area.
"We can see an overcrowding problem in adjacent high schools. We want a community school, we don't want our kids trekking long distances. The school was there and in mothballs and has been there for 10 years so we decided it was time to act," he said.
Copyright © The Age Company Ltd 2001.
ABC Radio News
Sunday, October 21, 2001
The Victorian Government will hand back the keys to
Fitzroy Secondary College today, almost ten years after it was shut down
by the former Liberal Government.
The Fitzroy Secondary College in Melbourne's inner city was one of more
than 350 schools closed by the Kennett government.
Its closure in 1992 led to a 14-month protest by parents and supporters
of the school to prevent its demolition.
Education Minister Mary Delahunty says its reopening puts an end to the
10 year long fight to restore public education.
"Supporters of public education refused to let this school be bulldozed,
refused to let the Kennett government sell off the land," she said.
The Minister will hand back the keys to the school at midday.
The school will be refurbished and the Government hopes to have it open
for students in 2003.
Sunday, October 21, 2001
The Fitzroy community has won a decade-long battle
to have its secondary college re-opened.
State Government Education Minister Mary Delahunty will today announce
a $5 million project to revive Fitzroy Secondary College, which was closed
in 1992.
About 300 community members occupied the school to prevent its demolition
for 14 month after the closure by the Kennett Government.
The community has since continued to lobby for the school to be re-launched
at the site.
Ms Delahunty will promise today to endeavour to open the college for year
7 students in 2003, and will commit to it operating for Year 7 and 8 students
on the first day of the 2004 school year if the 2003 deadline is not met.
The announcement follows a review pushed for by parents and established
by the Brack’s Government.
Fitzroy Secondary College parents spokesman AnTony McPhee said the community
would be delighted by the news.
”This issue has always been about us as parents wanting a public school
in the area for our children,” Mr. McPhee said.
”We appreciate that the Government is such a strong supporter of public
education.”
Ms Delahunty said yesterday: “It will be a privilege to be able to announce
that the community struggle has been worthwhile.”
The school, on a 1ha site, was built in 1910 and had about 350 pupils
when it closed.
© 2001 Herald and Weekly Times