Nelson Park anger boils over: Parents ‘alarmed’ as petition tabled

Pointed at parliament: John Eren and James Merlino in Spring St with the Nelson Park petition.Pointed at parliament: John Eren and James Merlino in Spring St with the Nelson Park petition.

By John Van Klaveren
OPPOSITION MPs are needlessly distressing parents with calls to retain a senior campus of northern Geelong’s school for disabled children, according to Education Minister Martin Dixon.
A spokesperson accused Member for Lara John Eren and opposition shadow education minister James Merlino of political motivations in their campaign for Nelson Park School’s Hendy St campus.
But Mr Eren and Mr Merlino said State Government plans to close the campus “ignored” the growing needs of the school’s staff and students.
They presented parliament with a petition of 1214 signatures supporting retention of the Hendy St campus.
“Education Minister Martin Dixon cannot ignore this issue any more,” Mr Merlino said.
“Nelson Park services one of the rapidly growing areas in the Geelong region but Mr Dixon has ignored this growth and decided to cram the entire school into one campus.”
Mr Merlino said the petition demonstrated community support for Hendy St as a permanent campus.
Mr Eren said Premier Ted Baillieu should rule out any sale of the land and use next month’s budget to announce funding for improved facilities.
The spokesman said the education department was exploring options to accommodate senior students in “more-appropriate facilities that better meet their needs”.
“The Hendy St campus of Nelson Park School was always intended as temporary accommodation and is not designed to suit the needs of students.
“While the school’s main campus has enough space to accommodate the senior students, the school has indicated that it wants to house its senior students at another facility.”
The spokesman said one option was a dedicated satellite facility at Northern Bay College’s trade training centre.
“This is a separate unit specifically for Nelson Park students from which the students will be able to access the centre under guidance from Nelson Park staff.
“This facility will enable a number of the senior students to benefit from trade-related experience at the trade training centre.
“Other options are also being considered at the request of the school.”