Ian Filer
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that Brighton Primary Schools $5M Building Better School’s redevelopment, has been given approval to be initiated immediately. This is a huge coup for our school considering that all High Schools have priority for building redevelopments, with all year 7 students moving to secondary campuses as from 2022.
In essence we will undertake the following:
- Construction of a 6-8 classroom facility, including (hopefully)a 5 station fully functioning kitchen, to be built on the area immediately east of the school hall.
- Upgrade of LA 2 to match LA1
- Demolition of LA 4 and 5 and landscaping, to incorporate a green space similar to what currently exists adjacent to the Hall.
- Upgrade of the Front Office area.
- Construction of a COLA (covered outdoor learning area) on the volleyball courts.
- New signage throughout the school
Now this of course is dependent on just how far $5M will stretch. I am meeting with the project manager this week, with 2 members of Governing Council (Stewart, Chairperson of our Facilities Committee and Simon,GC Chairperson ) -it will be important to have staff representation and also input from our wider community and of course student input. This will be organised in the very near future.
The building company involved are from Victoria and the construct will be a modular design-they come to us as highly regarded, very time efficient, with a quality product. Stewart, Simon and I will be traveling to Victoria in the very near future to visit a range of schools who have undertaken similar re builds. The timeline is an optimist’s dream-DfE predicts occupancy by this time next year!
Lots of questions no doubt-I will keep our school community well informed, as I always try to do.
Ian
Hi Ian.
I have a few questions regarding the 5M building better schools project.
Whilst I understand the value and importance of getting a good recommendation for a contractor… I am curious as to why you would agree to go ahead on such a large scale project without firstly visiting the projects in VIC before contracts are secure. I would also like to know if the project has gone out to tender before the contractor was selected? If not then why? I am keen to hear your view on why a VIC company has been selected over a local contractor?
When is the the project expected to commence and for how long?
I would love to hear your feedback
Regards
Sarah Meyler
Thankyou Sarah for your enquiry. I can assure our community that the selection of the preferred contractor was managed by DfE not the school and that appropriate protocols, as with any building or business transaction, have been followed correctly. The Project Management Team will hopefully meet this week and one aspect of our business, which I believe is very important, is sharing of information with our wider community. This will be a feature of this team. As stated in my post on the Blog it is anticipated that the building will take one year to complete with occupancy before the end of next year. The actual works will start sometime early in the new year-again to be confirmed. It is my understanding that the Victorian company will establish an office here in Adelaide employing local contractors for aspects of the build.
Ian
Congratulations and well done.
Much needed update of class rooms!
Thank you. I certainly agree it is much needed-an exciting but busy time ahead!
Ian
That is fantastic news!!! Exciting times ahead.
Thanks Deb-exciting indeed!!
Ian