Classrooms in use for as long as 50 years will finally be upgraded at Rutherglen High School.
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The school was the big winner in North East education from the Victorian budget, receiving $1.6 million towards upgrades.
Assistant principal Jennie Ward, who heard the good news when budget papers were made public on Wednesday afternoon, said she was very happy.
It had been a long wait – the school put together its plan for a new school back in 2011 and had not heard much from the state government since.
“We’ll now be able to put some of that in place,” Ms Ward said.
The school would have to wait until it clarified the funding details with the Education Department to decide if it would upgrade existing buildings or start constructing a new school.
Rutherglen had to watch during previous budgets as bigger schools, in Wodonga and Wangaratta, won budget funding.
“It’s lovely to see the government’s actually looking at smaller rural schools,” Ms Ward said.
“Schools are the hub of rural communities.”
She said the classroom upgrades would be focused on offering students a broader curriculum.
The school has 273 students from years 7 to 12.
“We do the best we can with the funds at hand,” Ms Ward said.
Planning for the details of the upgrade will be put to the school council before any decisions were made.
The Victorian budget also included $3.5 million for Benalla P-12 College and funding for upgrades at Beechworth Secondary College and Alpine School for Leadership.
Other hopeful schools such as Wangaratta and District Specialist School missed out on funding.
More than $200 million was invested in regional schools, to be managed by the new Victorian School Building Authority.
Education Minister James Merlino said poor condition schools received money.
“This education budget will bring the secondary schools in regional and rural Victoria that need it most up to the standard their students deserve.” he said
Benambra MLA Bill Tilley warned Rutherglen may only receive $59,000 of its funding during the first 12 months and the Beechworth Secondary College money was only to start planning for the future.
Funding for two new police stations – $3.25 million to replace Bright and $3.21 million for Corryong –was announced two weeks ago.
Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said $600,000 was set aside for planning for Yarrawonga Weir and Mulwala Bridge replacements.
