Students pitch in to address maintenance woes

Labor candidate for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters (left), with Kyneton Primary School student council members, Maggie Copeland and Chloe Meyer, and school council president, Fiona Copeland. The student council is pitching in to raise funds to repair the school's toilets.

Angela Crawford

The desperate need for Kyneton's K-12 Education Precinct to be realised has been further highlighted by increasing maintenance issues faced by both Kyneton Secondary College and Kyneton Primary School.

The most recent example is Kyneton Primary School's antiquated heating system, which broke down during first term and is awaiting repair, hopefully before the students return to school.

School council president, Fiona Copeland, said the maintenance budget won't cover all that needs to be done. 

"It's an old boiler system and needs parts - it's blown out the budget really, the winter's coming in and we really need to have it working," she said.

"There's a lot of things that need repair and issues that have been tagged as priority."

A general clean up and painting of the school's toilets is also needed, so the student council has taken up the task of raising the funds itself.

The students held a 'Guess the Easter Eggs in the Jar' competition before the end of term and raised $120 for the effort.

Labor candidate for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, visited the school for an assembly last week and was shocked to learn the students had to fundraise themselves to repair the toilets.

"It is shocking enough that young students are fundraising to fix the toilets, however, it's not the only maintenance issue at Kyneton Primary. Other issues challenging the school maintenance budget include a heater that needs repair, loose roof slates and leaking guttering," she said. 

"Principal Wendy Pearce and the Kyneton Primary school teachers are doing an outstanding job. Whilst the teachers, staff and school community are working hard to ensure their students receive a quality education, the state of the school buildings and facilities is appalling."

"Public school maintenance and maintenance budgets are the responsibility of the Victorian State Liberal Government but they are clearly failing meet the funding needs our schools."

Ms Chesters said the Federal Government's National Plan for School Improvement will provide a fairer school funding model for all schools.

"Negotiations are continuing ahead of COAG and we're working hard to secure a deal with all states and systems," she said. 

 "We're asking the State Liberal Government to pay their fair share and commit to the National Plan for School Improvement."