On 24 February 2009, Lucy Jackanic and I decided to accept a $3 million grant which the Federal Government under Kevin Rudd offered to all Australian primary schools. This was a marvellous opportunity for us as being in Sunbury where the Socio-Economic Status (S.E.S.) is 104.5, we never receive government grants for school buildings—only areas of less than 96 S.E.S. receive grants. On 26 March we had our first meeting with the architect Gerard Smith, who had done much work earlier at St Anne’s.
On 8 September, formal site meetings began and were conducted every fortnight including school holidays until 31 August 2010 often lasting 90 minutes. Shane Crawford, Deputy Principal, also kept a keen eye on this project and attended the site meetings and numerous spontaneous meetings with the workers.
Occasionally, as in all building projects, there were some thorny issues. While we were negotiating with one of Australia’s largest building companies, Lucy and I had between us fifty-five years of experience in building schools. The outcome was the project came in on 99.9% on budget.
Last Tuesday the opening was a joyous event as guests and parents were amazed at the extent and quality of the classrooms, computer rooms, shared spaces, student wellbeing rooms, and the multi-purpose facility.
This Building the Education Revolution (B.E.R.) project is Lucy’s fifth and largest project during her eight years with us—previous projects are Junior School refurbishment, twin classroom project, a new all-weather oval and the sealed carpark. Next Monday construction begins on a new netball court.
Fr Kevin
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 