PARENTS and Cleveland MP Mark Robinson are pushing for a hall to be built at Cleveland District State High School but say Education Minister Kate Jones is ignoring them.
The school has access only to a council-owned community hall and a bitumen area with a metal roof.
The hall accommodates about 600 people, while the school has nearly 2000 students.
Mr Robinson and the school’s parents and citizens association have called for signatures to a Queensland Parliament petition, calling for a multi-purpose indoor hall.
The P&C’s sports hall campaign project manager Lyndsay Byrne said the association had tried repeatedly to contact Ms Jones but had been ignored.
”For a school as large as Cleveland in 2016 to operate without adequate facilities for the assembly of students is unheard of and as parents we are saying enough is enough,” she said.
Mr Robinson said it seemed the government was ignoring the needs of the school. “It is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Robinson said when the LNP was in government the year 7 block had been built at a cost of $7 to $8 million.
“There was a lot of investment when we were in government,” he said.
A spokesperson for Ms Jones said the department recognised the P&C’s efforts and was committed to working with them and the school community.
He said the priority for school capital works was to cater for growth and to ensure every child had a classroom.
“Our ability to deliver capital works beyond enrolment growth is constrained by the previous LNP government’s public private partnership deal,” he said.
“This deal has tied up more than $100 million from this year’s capital works budget. It will cost Queensland $1.5 billion overall.”
He said the department was working with the school to prepare a business case for the hall which would help prioritise the project and future funding decisions.
Ms Byrne said some parents missed out on viewing their children’s graduation presentation last year due to a lack of space in the hall.
The school holds events such as Anzac Day services in the outdoor area where overflowing students can be exposed to sun and rain.
In a letter to parents earlier this year, Ms Byrne wrote that students and staff had crammed into the outdoor space for the Anzac Day service.
“It was so tight and hot that students had limited access to bathroom amenities, some fainted and suffered other medical conditions and all were subjected to the heat,” the letter said.
The council hall was built in the late 1970s when the school – built in 1961 – had about 600 students.
Ms Byrne said the association’s proposal was for a multi-purpose hall that could be used by the school and groups such as sporting clubs.
“This well overdue multi-purpose hall will not only protect students, but will be used by the entire Redlands community,” she said.
“It will be a meeting place, offer our school modern sporting and performing arts facilities and be a venue for multiple activities that can take place in a safe environment.”
The petition is on the Queensland Parliament website’s e-petition’s page.