HAD ENOUGH: School counts the cost of vandals

BLACK Hill Primary School will be forced to use thousands of dollars of its yearly budget to replace 19 windows smashed by vandals over the school holidays.Principal Ann Campbell said windows had been broken each night for the past 10 days, with the latest attack coming early yesterday when vandals attempted to steal an overhead projector from a classroom.She expressed frustration at the senseless nature of the acts, which came just six months after similar attacks left the school with 21 broken windows."This is not covered by insurance, it comes out of the school budget and that money could have been used to buy three or four computers,'' she said."It's not always theft motivated, that's the frustrating thing."I'm just concerned what the motivation is. We work hard as a school to make it a place people are proud of and they come and cause this seemingly unmotivated and senseless damage, it's quite upsetting."Ms Campbell said the school's security company notified her immediately each time a window was broken.Nearly every night for the past 10 days the phone call had come between 1am and 4am, she said."It's always early in the morning, if it's kids doing it you have to wonder what they are doing out that late, and if it's not, I can't understand the motivation,'' she said."It's lovely school, we have a great reputation, so I can't imagine anyone with a vendetta against us."The windows that were being replaced yesterday were all made of high-cost reinforced glass, which is a Department of Education requirement so children who might accidentally break a window do not hurt themselves.However, Ms Campbell said said the glass came at a much higher cost than a regular window pane and the school was now faced with a repair bill in the thousands of dollars. Anyone with information is asked to phone Ballarat police on 5336 6026.