Parents at Hanwood Public School Eleisha Collins, Michael Fletcher, Luke Condon, Janelle Laird, Melissa Agresta, Kellyanne Humphreys, Michelle Johanson, Erin Bonetti, Vicki Monteleone and Amy Dissenga oppose plans to remove the classroom behind them as well as four others. Photos: Oliver Jacques.
Parents of Hanwood Public students have expressed outrage after learning the NSW Government plans to strip five classrooms from their school.
The five demountable rooms were installed 14 years ago and are occupied daily for a Year 3/4 class, Italian lessons, before- and after-school childcare, special-needs lessons and a breakfast room to feed children who would otherwise begin the day hungry.
“The department told the school at the end of last term the rooms would be going,” Hanwood P&C president Eleisha Collins said.
“We haven’t been given an explanation. There’s no plan to rebuild the classes, we are not getting any services and they’ve given us no solutions. They are taking our classrooms and giving us nothing in return.”
The Department of Education said a final decision had not been made on the removal of the demountables, but a review was underway.
“Hanwood Public School has sufficient permanent capacity to cater for and teach all students at the school,” a spokesperson said.
“This includes seven permanent classrooms, which also accommodate a community language teacher.
“The department will regularly undertake demountable accommodation reviews to ensure that schools across the state have the facilities they need, and also that demountables are put to use where they are needed the most.”
Ms Collins disagreed, saying the Hanwood school didn’t have enough alternative space to accommodate the five cohorts of students who had been left homeless.
She said the school also didn’t even have room to store the chairs, tables and resources currently in the classrooms.
The department said students who used after- and before-school care would be moved to the school hall and that it could take away furniture that didn’t fit in on-site storage facilities.
“This decision is not only shortsighted but, in my view, irresponsible,” parent Erin Bonetti said in a letter to the department.
“It will directly and negatively affect the learning spaces available to current and future students, including my own children.
“Our school is growing and thriving. To remove infrastructure at a time like this sends the wrong message to families like mine.”
Hanwood students are not impressed with the plans either.
At least eight parents have written to the NSW Department of Education to express their objection, but none have received a response.
Region understands that demountable classrooms are kept on a site near Parkes and then moved on to other schools as they need them.
NSW Teachers Federation representative Bert Bertalli said he opposed the decision, though his main focus was on pressuring the government to construct real buildings in which children could learn.
“Demountables are a blight on public schools, they only use them so they can take them away when they cut funding,” he said.
“It’s outrageous that private schools have these big, beautiful buildings with swimming pools and we get these ugly, old temporary facilities. Hanwood School is full of them and has had them for 15 years; it’s unacceptable.”
Last year, Hanwood School was earmarked to have a new preschool built on its grounds.
“What the preschool will do is bolster enrolments, so they’ll have more numbers and eventually have to bring back buildings. So it seems ludicrous to take them away now,” Mr Bertalli said.
“It’s a Catch-22 for us. We don’t want ugly, inefficient, unsustainable demountables, we want bricks and mortar, which they can’t remove.”
