School’s urgent needs met

MEREDITH Primary School was granted ten thousand dollars this summer, having applied for financial assistance from the Federal government’s Local Schools Community Fund.

Principal, Steven Trotter said the school council had identified the student toilets as needing “urgent” refurbishment and the grant meant the $25,000 project could go ahead quickly before school went back for 2020.

“We had some locally raised funds that supported that, and we put in elements to make up the remainder of the money, but without that $10,000, it wouldn’t have been an achievable outcome,” he said.

“We probably would have had to just give it a basic, superficial refurb, but we were able to actually install some new parts, get new floors, get the building internally and externally painted, all the holes patched up, new doors and fans put in.

“It’s a good refurb and it looks really smart. It’s a much more hygienic place now and nicer for the students to visit,” Mr Trotter said.

Although the block was in “dire” need of an upgrade, it could have taken an extremely long time for Meredith Primary School to get the facility up to scratch.

“As a smaller, rural school, our capacity to raise the amount of money required would’ve taken years, but because we had locally raised funds and we got that grant, it meant immediate action.

“It’s now a sustainable refurb,” Mr Trotter said. “Over the summer I was able to engage with builders… There were no interruptions. It was done and ticked off by the time all of the students were back on deck.”

Through the same round of funding, Bannockburn P-12 College received $5000 and Inverleigh Primary School was given $5000 for ICT improvements.

For playground equipment, Shelford Primary School got $6000 and St Mary MacKillop Catholic Primary School, Bannockburn received $7500.