THE new $7.5 million Lalor Gardens Primary School has an unexpected facility – a “swimming pool”.
The “pool” of stagnant water is the result of the project running out of funds for landscaping.
Lalor Park and Lalor Park West primary schools were merged two years ago to become Lalor Gardens Primary, with about 400 students moving to the new site last week.
The school was Lalor Gardens in “name only”, according to school council president Connie Mihalas.
She said the school building was “brilliant” but the grounds were a “disaster”.
She said the building ran $500,000 over its federally funded $7.5 million budget, and landscaping was cut.
She said the state government refused to cover the full list of outstanding works worth up to $200,000, but had given $83,000 as a one-off contribution.
“The state government didn’t build it, the federal government did, but the state government will make several million from the sale of the Lalor Park site in Linoak Avenue,” she said.
The building, in the shape of a spider with legs fanning out from a central administration area, was perfect, Ms Mihalas said.
“Students can go from one end of the school to the other without having to step outside,” she said.
“The parents had the foresight to merge the schools to get a first-class facility. We saved as much as we could by recycling seating and table legs, but we don’t have the money for landscaping.”
She said students faced injury from building debris and could play on only two small outside surfaces.
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