New facilities on the cards

Friday November 01, 2024

Published by The Border Watch by Charlotte Varcoe

A Group of students at Melaleuca Park Primary School has secured government funding for facility upgrades.

Students previously advocated to Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell for better toilet facilities after a school camp in Adelaide.

While on their visit to the metropolitan area, students visited other schools which had hand driers, warm water and more room in their facilities.

The small group of student leaders wrote to Mr Bell as well as their principal, Minister for Education Blair Boyer and local education director Adam Box.

Mr Bell attended a tour hosted by the students where they highlighted concerns with the facilities including a lack of privacy, cold water and hygiene concerns.

Now, several months later, the students were rejoicing at the notification the project had been approved by the state government.

The school will share in a pool of more than $3.1m worth of funding specifically for toilet upgrades across the state. Melaleuca Park Primary School is one of six students to share the funds.

Students were also identified as one of the Group Awardees for the Governor's Civic Awards for School competitions in 2024. Those involved will travel to Adelaide in February next year to accept the award at Government House.

Student leaders Lacey, Brax, Taylor and Evelyn said they were excited the project had been approved as well as to receive the award. Lacey and Evelyn said they both felt accomplished following the news while Brax and the others were excited to travel to Adelaide.

They said throughout the process not only did they advocate for the facilities to members of Parliament, they also redesigned the toilets and measured tiles to figure out how many would be needed for the floor.

"On Monday this week we got the news we had won the Civics Award and we were so excited because that is a big achievement for us all," Evelyn said.

"We have learned a lot of things like perimeter and area, working out how many tiles we need for the bathroom floor but also working as a team, communication and collaboration which has definitely helped us in it."

The students said although they would no longer be at the school upon the completion of the redevelopment, they looked forward to coming back for its official opening.

"Our learning agency has definitely helped us to do all this because if we did not have our learning agency we were just going to still have these disgusting toilets," Evelyn said.

"But since we have been given the option to choose our learning we got to focus on how to fix them."

They agreed there remained potential projects for future students with Lacey and Evelyn mentioning the vegetable garden needing a second attempt while Brax hoped for a rotunda upgrade in the future.

Mr Bell said he was thrilled to hear the two pieces of good news and how it was wonderful to see the students recognised for their dedication, leadership and commitment to improving their school community.

"Their advocacy for improved facilities not only demonstrated their sense of responsibility but also the power of student voices in creating positive change," Mr Bell said.

He said receiving the funding was a "fantastic example" of what students could accomplish when they took initiative and worked together for positive change in their community.

Other recipients of state government funding included Glenburnie Primary School - which will receive a disability access toilet- and Gordon Education Centre which will have a new outdoor bike track.

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