By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
HAMPTON Park Primary School’s original building could be shifted to a reserve and be home to a much-needed men’s shed under a solution hatched by the school and Casey councillors.
The school has formally offered to relocate the 96-year-old school house to the nearby Marjorie Eastick Reserve in Regans Road and to donate it to the council.
Councillor Damian Rosario told a Casey council meeting on 17 May that the relocation would be funded by the state Department of Education.
He said the circa-1922 building – which was in “excellent condition” – could form a much-needed home for Hampton Park’s Men’s Shed group.
Currently the group meets at a community centre room that is shared by other groups but this arrangement makes storing tools and equipment “unworkable”, Cr Rosario said.
“What we have here is a possibility,” he said – noting a popular social media campaign calling for the school house’s retention.
“One of the benefits is we keep a heritage building in Hampton Park.
“You can’t invent new heritage.”
Principal Leonie King and six other members of the school stated in a letter to the council that the “single stand-alone room” was “limiting our students’ learning”.
The building did not fit the school’s planned modernisation as part of a $5.7 million upgrade.
Council officers will consider the offer, reporting back on the refit and ongoing cost of the building.
Hampton Park Progress Association spokesman Tony O’Hara said the group preferred the school house remained on-site but it was “absolutely wonderful” that it may still be standing.
“Other schools make their old buildings a focal point of their history but, unfortunately, they didn’t see it that way.”
As reported in Star News this month, the school house was facing demolition as soon as October.
It was exempt from protection, despite being covered by a heritage overlay.
