Squeeze on for special school

By Emma Sun
PARENTS of special needs children are continuing theirfight for a school to be built in the Casey-Cardinia region, to relieve the burden on families at other schools.
Public schools which also take special needs children – such as Dandenong Valley in Narre Warren, Marnebek in Cranbourne and Emerson in Dandenong – struggle to accommodate the rapidly growing need for better facilities and more classrooms.
In a meeting with Liberal MPs, teachers and parents expressed their concerns about class sizes, lack of facilities and the lack of space to expand.
Judy Norton, a senior co-ordinator at Dandenong Valley School, said they had more than three times the number of special needs children than their intended number.
“We are only supposed to have 50 special needs children, but we presently have 180 full-time students,” Ms Norton said.
“This is a concern, because we don’t have any room to expand, so the more students we take, the bigger classroom sizes will get.”
Joanne Blanch, a parent whose child attends Marnebek School, agreed.
“Marnebek has around 265 special needs students, but they were only supposed to accommodate 140. There isn’t a lot of room to move, they’ve lost their bike track, and might have to resort to using their car park for another portable classroom,” Ms Blanch said.
“The kids have asked for a football oval or cricket pitch, but there is just no room for it. They are very much landlocked.”
Emerson School presently has 393 special needs students, and parents say there is no room to take any more students, with just “rows and rows of portables”.
Advocate for the specialist school and mum to a special needs child, Cathy Smith said everyone should push to have the school built as soon as possible.
“We don’t want to wait another two years for this. Numbers are going up rapidly, so the need is great,” Ms Smith said.
“We contest that the most appropriate setting for many children with disabilities is a specialist school. Mainstream schools cannot adequately meet the educational needs of many children.”
Cardinia Shire councillor George Blenkhorn said the problem was in finding a block of land big enough to build the new school.
“Everyone should get onto Cardinia Shire for bigger land for this school,” Cr Blenkhorn said.
Shadow Minister for Education Martin Dixon said the new school would ease pressure on other schools.
“While the existing schools in Cranbourne and Dandenong are doing a great job, the State Government needs to improve services for children with special needs in the growth corridor and commit to building a new special school in Officer,” Mr Dixon said.
“The decision made here will have a large effect on many other areas.”