Bipartisan commitment for a Bungendore high school

On Friday 14 December 2018 the local member for Monaro and Deputy Premier, John Barilaro announced that the NSW Government will build a public high school in Bungendore. This announcement now means the wider Bungendore community has bipartisan commitment to build a dedicated local high school from both the Government and Labor opposition. Mr Barilaro said they have identified three suitable, accessible and well-located sites. These sites are all privately owned so further confidential negotiations need to continue but he said he hoped to ‘publicly announce the chosen site shortly.’

This announcement follows a six-month process of surveying the community to gather data to put forward the case for a high school in Bungendore. ‘The data showed that rather than move away, families will stay in Bungendore when the high school is built, and parents would be open to changing their child’s high school enrolment in order to send them to school in Bungendore,’ Mr Barilaro said. ‘It is clear that families want their children to be educated close to home, in their local community.’

In September this year approximately 60 people attended the Labor Education Forum at the Memorial Hall in Bungendore and in October, Monaro Labor candidate, Bryce Wilson, also made the commitment to build a public high school in Bungendore in the next term of government.

The Bungendore High School Action Group is delighted that the NSW Government has now committed to building a public high school in the next term of Government. ‘This announcement is great news for the future high school students from Bungendore, Captains Flat, Tarago, Bywong, Wamboin, Sutton and Gundaroo,’ said long-term local resident and member of the Action Group, Laura Fulton, ‘Thank you to all those from these communities who responded in large numbers to the survey and helped John Barilaro achieve this great outcome. The overwhelming support of the community was instrumental in getting a commitment to build a Bungendore high school within the next term from both the Government and the Labor opposition.’

‘We are very excited about this announcement. We are also aware that there is still a lot of work required to confirm the necessary detail behind these commitments so that they become a reality,’ said spokesperson for the Action Group, Fiona Doyle. ‘With limited options for local high school students until the new school is built, it is important that the community continues to engage with our state member and whichever party forms Government after the next election. This engagement will help ensure the school gets up and running ─ hopefully by the start of the 2022 school year.’

Photo: John Barilaro with Bungendore Public School students last Friday afternoon after the announcement. [Photo by Sharon Baxter-Judge]