The first stage of building works at Ballarat Secondary College’s Woodmans Hill and Mount Rowan campuses are complete with more extensive works planned to start early next year.
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The VCE/senior student centres at both campuses have been completed, with students at Woodmans Hill able to use the new facility for a few weeks in their final term at the school.
BSC principal Rick Gervasoni said the main building works at each campus would start next year and hopefully be completed in about 18 months.
“At Mount Rowan there’s $12 million allocated which will really upgrade the whole school. Virtually every building on the site will be touched and upgraded,” he said.
The campus will also receive a 250 seat auditorium for performing arts, upgraded science, technology and arts areas, a new canteen and food technology teaching areas, with construction expected to begin around March.
When that is complete, a second stage of construction will kick off with further upgrades, a new humanities wing, new resource centre/library and a new administration building which will shift the face of the school up Forrest St away from its current orientation.
“It means the whole school will be refurbished and upgraded, with nothing left untouched,” Mr Gervasoni said.
The school community has also been able to view the architect’s impressions of the new school buildings, with designs recently released on the Victorian Schools Building Authority website.
The state government has allocated $18 million to the school over the past four years for a project that will upgrade almost every building across the two campuses.
The upgrade comes as the college prepares to mark the end of the first full year since the restructure of the school and the closure of the Barkly Street campus, which had accommodated year 11 and 12 students.
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At the start of 2017, the college’s Wendouree campus was renamed Mount Rowan, while the east campus became Woodmans Hill and full VCE studies were reintroduced to both sites.
At Woodmans Hill, a $6 million budget allocation will see the old hall converted in to a 250 seat auditorium, new food technology and canteen, an upgrade of the science facilities and a new technology and arts hub.
“All of this building means we will have state-of-the-art facilities across both campuses, hopefully by the end of 2019,” Mr Gervasoni said.
In response to the extensive building works and the transformation of the school, Mr Gervasoni said enrolment numbers at both campuses were starting to rise.
