Parents dial up aircon heat

Government cool on funding Gold Coast schools

FRUSTRATED parents say they have been fundraising to pay for airconditioning systems in their children’s Gold Coast schools for years – and with no end in sight, they’re fed up.

Dozens of parents took to social media when the Gold Coast Bulletin revisited the long-running heated issue this week, with city councillor William Owen-Jones and Bonney MP Sam O’Connor calling on the State Government to fork out for the systems, which can cost well over $100,000.

But the State Government is sticking to its policy of only fully airconditioning state schools that lie in the Cooler Schools Zones, which cover the west and north of the state. Schools in areas south of Gladstone have to find alternative funding if they want their students in airconditioned classrooms.

Gold Coast schools are well outside the zones that are looked after, but Education Minister Grace Grace said it was up to each school to juggle its finances and grants if it wanted to make airconditioning its priority.

The Department of Education did not say how many of the Gold Coast region’s schools were airconditioned.

Amid the angry responses posted online, one parent said her daughter’s class “can’t even turn the fans on because the teacher said they make too much noise”. “We pay a levy each year and we are four years at the school now and still no aircon,” she said.

Another said Pacific Pines Primary School had been “fundraising for at least the last seven years” and the school was only partially airconditioned.

A woman sending her three girls to Gaven State School was “one of many parents paying to help our school install aircon”.

One woman said it was not just state schools that were missing out on airconditioning.

While many commenters were scathing, a handful dismissed airconditioning as unnecessary.

“Harden up cupcakes. We survived without aircon,” one man said.

Ms Grace said the department responded to specific cases, including those involving medical conditions and traffic noise.

The LNP has pledged to aircondition state schools by 2028 if elected to government, but Ms Grace said that was unrealistic. About 390 of 1241 state schools have some form of airconditioning across Queensland.