By Mitchell Clarke
Hampton Park Secondary College will receive more than half a million in funding to plan for a new wellness centre, administration office and entrance area.
Education Minister James Merlino and Narre Warren South MP Gary Maas took to Zoom on Thursday 8 October to announce the school had been given the green light to start planning for upgrades.
Under the Infrastructure Planning and Acceleration Fund, Hampton Park Secondary College will receive a further $563,000 to plan for their Stage 3 modernisation works, which include a new wellness centre and refurbishment of the administration and entrance area.
It’s anticipated the new centre will support a variety of health initiatives and assist in catering to the diverse needs of the school’s multicultural student population.
By starting the detailed designs now, it’s hoped projects will be shovel-ready once capital funding is allocated in a future State Budget.
“Planning for school upgrades in the future will provide a much needed boost to our economy as we get on with the post pandemic recovery,” Minister Merlino said.
Hampton Park Secondary College Principal Wayne Haworth welcomed the funding to plan for the school’s Stage 3 masterplan.
“We are continuing to deliver our modernisation masterplan with construction funding of Stage 1 and 2, and planning funding for Stage 3,” he said.
“Planning for Stage 3 is another step as we endeavour to provide all our students with a truly modern and state-of-the-art learning environment that will assist us to maximise learning.
“Our students, teachers and families look forward to all the upcoming construction and new facilities.”
The school has recently received more than $7 million in funding boosts.
Narre Warren South MP Gary Maas said the investments would ensure Hampton Park families had the best chance at accessing a “high quality education”.
“The Andrews Government will continue to invest in our local schools such as Hampton Park Secondary College to make sure students have the best facilities to help them achieve their best results,” he said.
Mr Maas also announced that 4Dimensions Building Contractors is set to carry out construction works on the $2.62 million Stage 1 modernisation project.
Those works, which will convert the school’s gymnasium into a double storey classroom complex to create six flexible classrooms, informal learning spaces, staff work areas and a VCE seminar room, were designed by Wowowa Architecture.
Stage 1 works are set to be completed in 2021.
