SOMETIMES it’s the little things that matter most.
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Parents, teachers and students at the Warrnambool Special Developmental School have been doing it hard for too long.
They had to fight hard to get the state government to agree to move them from their cramped premises in Hyland Street and now they’re having to plead for an additional bus to cope with increasing numbers at the school.
Last year the Labor government, then in opposition, pledged to commit $5 million to the building of a new home for the school after years of campaigning by the school board.
At the time, deputy opposition leader James Merlino labelled the school’s facilities as unacceptable and promised that if elected his government would help buy a new site in north Warrnambool and make things happen at last.
Well Labor is back in power and the special-school community would very much like to know what is happening with that promise. Let’s hope it’s not going to be a broken one.
The latest problem faced by the school as it continues to grow is with transport.
The school desperately needs the Education Department to provide a fifth bus to meet demand.
The department has offered the Band-Aid solution of an existing bus doing two runs, but this is totally impractical and will put unnecessary pressure on parents and students.
If the school is expected to suck this one up it will mean that one five-year-old student who lives in Minhamite would have to catch his bus to Warrnambool at 7am, two hours before school starts.
Given the nature of many of the students’ disabilities, they can’t travel on mainstream services nor can they be expected to walk or ride bikes.
The bureaucrats in government have got the paperwork and have promised to fast-track the fifth bus. Let’s hope that’s not a broken promise either.
It seems terribly unfair that this school in particular has had to battle so hard for the things it so obviously needs.
Governments can find tens of millions of dollars for myriad things that don’t matter yet always seem to struggle to find the cash for the things that do.