After more than seven years, Greater Shepparton Secondary College has been officially declared open.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Education Minister James Merlino visited Greater Shepparton Secondary College on Friday morning to cut the ribbon and open what they called one of the best schools in the state.
Mr Andrews and Mr Merlino spoke at the official opening, along with State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed, school principal Barbara O’Brien and the college’s captains.
Ms Sheed has been instrumental in pushing for the school and said she felt proud to see the school open with students buzzing around.
“It’s a proud moment, and something which needed to be done,” she said.
She said it felt like the first day of school for her in some aspects and admitted while there would be “teething problems“ — police were called to the campus in its first week with on-site learning — it was on the right track.
She said council was investigating issues around parking and traffic, and said it would take time for the city to get used to the new school, from the traffic to new bus routes.
However, she said it was no different to other schools across the state in having issues.
Ms Sheed said the school was big enough that students who were feeling unsafe could move across the nine “schools” spread across three “neighbourhoods” within the school and still feel safe.
Mr Andrews thanked those who fought and pushed for Shepparton to receive “the very best” school possible.
“This is the product of so much hard work, the easy thing would have been to never take this on,” he said.
“I’m not talking about our government, I’m talking about leaders in this local community, education leaders, parents, the Shepparton community that said, ‘we can do more than just upgrade existing schools, we can build something new and unique’.”
The new facility caters for up to 2700 students and is part of the Victorian Government’s $140 million Shepparton Education Plan.
Mr Merlino said enacting the plan for the school was a “tough decision”.
“We were letting young people down, not getting the student outcomes or the opportunities that they deserve, so we needed to do something different,” he said.
“This was a hard, hard road with understandable anxiety, but everyone knew that this could deliver something transformative.
“This is the most significant (campus) in the state of Victoria, the most transformative, but that means it’s hard.”
He said the new campus, which is the result of merging four local secondary schools into one, has allowed for a more extensive range of schooling options with Year 9 students having the option of 54 electives.
The Victorian Government is continuing its discussion with the Shepparton community, local government and other key stakeholders on the future use of the three former secondary school sites in Shepparton and Mooroopna.
The arrangements for the community use for all three sites will remain for all of 2022, ensuring community members could continue to meet, learn, work and play on those sites.