School community demands refurbishment

An award-winning school community deserves better facilities from the State Government, writes DIANE HAGUE.

Bowraville Central School's buildings are old and the school has been left to run down over many years to the point where the conditions for teachers and students are a disgrace. Staff and students are tired of waiting and having to cope with rundown and poorly maintained facilities.

Following numerous representations from the school community, local MP Andrew Stoner and Federation, Bowraville Central was placed as Priority 1 for the Mid North Coast Buildings Refurbishing list in 2005. In 2006 the school has still not been told whether the refurbishment, so desperately needed, will happen.

Bowraville Central is situated on the mid north coast of NSW and teaches K-10. The student population this year is 118 secondary and 223 primary students. About 28 per cent of the student population is Aboriginal. The school is part of a close-knit community and was instrumental in setting up the Bowraville Community Alliance.

During the 1940s, when some one teacher schools closed, the Department relocated some of the buildings to Bowraville. The current art room is an old small school building. The last main building works were in 1966 which included the science laboratory. A modern science laboratory demountable was provided to the school a few years ago. However, in typical bureaucratic fashion, the Department removed the laboratory and the demountable that housed the community learning centre at the end of last year, when student numbers dropped. The community learning centre was where the P&C held its meetings and was a place where the local Aboriginal language, Gumbayingirri, had been taught. There is no community learning centre now.

The library is in a demountable.

Bowraville Central Federation Representative and teacher-librarian Helen Rushton said: "I shuffle sardines in a sardine tin. I'm trying to make space and provide resources for students from K-10," Ms Rushton said.

"We don't have specialist rooms such as drama and music. The musical instruments are stored in a storeroom that leaks and music students have their classes in the home science room, which also caters for French.

"The agriculture plot needs a complete makeover. The learning area is a tin shed with no walls and some stools. The demountable toilets at the plot are so disgusting that the cleaners have refused to clean them."

These are only some of the examples of neglect that Helen told me about.

"The parents who stay with the school love the school, the teachers and the atmosphere but want better facilities for the kids," Ms Rushton said.

Local P&C Secretary Mary Lawler said parents, staff and students had undertaken different maintenance projects to make the school a bit better. In 2004, students repainted the toilets in bright colours but there is still mould and mildew on the toilet windows. A few weeks ago on a Saturday, a working bee of parents and teachers pressure cleaned all the walls in a number of buildings where the cement was filthy.

"Our children deserve better, our staff need better. Students have pride in the school but they shouldn't have such appalling conditions," Ms Lawler said.

"My eldest two children have been students at the school. I still have a long journey with the school and I want my youngest child to have access to better facilities."

Federation calls on the Minister and the State Government to stop its shameful neglect of Bowraville Central School and to guarantee major funding for capital works, refurbishment and maintenance in the State Budget. That conditions in a public school under a Labor Government in NSW should be allowed to deteriorate to such an extent is an indictment on this Government.

Diane Hague is the Administration Officer (Media and Communications).

Bowraville wins awards for excellence

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