Following news earlier in the week Willyama High School will be demolished after an independent report into a severe mould outbreak was released, Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy has welcomed the state government’s decision to rebuild the school.
“This is a great outcome for our children, teachers, and for the future of Broken Hill, and I applaud the government for taking this approach,” Mayor Kennedy said.
“I also have to thank the community for standing united and saying that the current arrangement of merged schools is not a long-term solution, and that the city must have two standalone high schools moving forward.
“We had a lot of people come to us with concerns that the schools would be permanently merged and I want to reassure everyone that we regularly put those concerns forward to the government.”
Mayor Kennedy said discussions with the state government would continue around the temporary plans to house some 600 affected students and staff on a standalone site in the North. Currently, a pop-up Willyama High School is being set up at Broken Hill High School which will be in operation for the entire school cohort from the start of Term 2.
“We absolutely appreciate and respect all the work that has been undertaken so far to prepare part of the Broken Hill High School grounds for an interim school for Willyama students, but we still believe there’s a better option for all parties,” Mayor Kennedy said.
“It’s going to take at least two years for a new school to be built, and that’s far too long to have 1100 kids crammed onto one school site. We’ve already put forward a case that the demountables should be placed on vacant land behind the Aquatic Centre to give all students more space and separation.
“The land is a mix of Council and privately owned land and it is definitely available to place the demountable classrooms, so we’ll certainly look to continue those discussions with the government moving forward.”
