The state government would rather expand existing schools that are able to cope with growth than build a new facility for a small student population, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says.
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He visited Rutherford Public School on Monday with Liberal candidate for Maitland Steve Thomson to announce government funding for new programs to improve the quality of teaching.
Mr Piccoli said schools across the Hunter had benefited from $26 million of extra, needs-based funding in 2014-15.
The Minister also commented on public debate over whether Maitland would need new schools to cope with its growing population.
Mr Piccoli said it was better to increase student populations at existing schools that could cope with the growth rather than build a new school for a small number of students.
“A school like this [Rutherford] has already got all its systems set up, it’s already got great teaching practice, it’s got the room to expand,” he said.
“Where there is room to expand existing schools, we should and we do.
“It’s about expanding existing sites rather than building new schools. Of course, where a site is too small, we build new schools.
“We’ve built 18 since we’ve been in government and we’ll continue to build new schools as we need to.”
Rutherford Public School principal Sean Andrews said he believed the school could cater for another 200 students.
He also said the school site had plenty of room for expansion.
“We’ve got plenty of room to take on extra classrooms,” Mr Andrews said.
“We’ve got a great school here and whether we get another 200, 500 or 1000 kids, we’ll do just as good a job as what we do with the number of enrolments now.”
Opposition Leader Luke Foley announced last week that Labor had earmarked $60 million for two new schools in the Maitland electorate.
He did not commit to building a school in the first term of a Labor government, but he did not rule it out.
Labor candidate for Maitland Jenny Aitchison said students could lose a sense of community at schools that became too big.
“Good policy doesn’t come from one teacher or one principal,” she said.
“That’s why we have talked about using the demographics, doing the planning and making sure that it was done in a strategic way.”
