DOOR GIVES KIDS THE ...
PRIMARY school children are using toilets without doors due to a maintenance budget crisis at an ageing Gold Coast school.
Photographs obtained by the Bulletin show the lack of privacy in toilet blocks and cracked pavements at Helensvale State School.
Opposition MP Mark Boothman says the repairs will cost $500,000, but the annual maintenance budget is less than $100,000.
PRIMARY school children are being forced to use toilets without doors and confronted with safety hazards due to a maintenance budget crisis at an ageing Gold Coast school.
Photographs obtained by the Bulletin show the lack of privacy in toilet blocks, the dangerous pavements that students must navigate to classrooms and damaged seating outside that remains off-limits.
Theodore MP Mark Boothman estimates the repairs at Helensvale State School will cost $500,000, but the annual maintenance budget is less than $100,000.
“The school is littered with potential trip hazards with cracked concrete footpaths, outdoor seats in desperate need of replacement, drainage failing to deal with rain events, rain water drainpipes rusting or just flat-out broken,” Mr Boothman said.
“Students are forced to forgo privacy due to missing toilet doors. It’s ridiculous. The school is desperate for help.”
The Palaszczuk Government provided almost $82 million for Coast state schools in its 2018-19 budget to cover maintenance and capital works projects.
But most of the funds were spent providing extra classrooms at high schools at Helensvale, Tamborine Mountain, Pimpama State Secondary College and Ormeau Woods, along with building a new primary school at Coomera.
The Government allocated $210 million across the state for school maintenance, of which $6 million went to the Coast and $98,000 to Helensvale State School. Despite the injection of government funding, parents at the school have a lengthy list of complaints that include:
A 16-year-old classroom yet to be re-painted externally or internally since it opened.
An off-limit area outside one building due to exposed tree roots, erosion and deteriorating wooden benches.
Boundary fences where the wire is broken and support pipework rusted and cracked.
Education Minister Grace Grace said the LNP in 2015 had “lumped us with a long list of maintenance jobs valued at $214 million”, which the Government was working on.
“The principal (at Helensvale), like all state school principals, is responsible for allocating these funds to priority projects,” she said.
“However, since receiving a letter from the Member for Theodore, I have requested a regional infrastructure adviser to visit the school to assist the principal and school community in prioritising any urgent works, so that a comprehensive response can be provided.”
A parent told the Bulletin: “They can’t keep up with the maintenance. There’s a lot of new schools on the Coast given the same budget despite no maintenance being required.”