Parents and guardians of Byron Bay’s St Finbarr’s Catholic Primary School are facing long delays in the installation of demountable buildings to ease classroom shortages.
And while the known flooding issues appear to have been addressed by the Director of Catholic Schools, Finbarr’s Parent Committee told The Echo that it is unclear why there is a delay installing the demountable buildings.
The committee told The Echo, ‘in 2024, with 13 classes and only ten classrooms, the library and school hall were being used as interim classrooms for years 3 and 6′.
‘With significant recent rainfall, the library at St Finbarr’s flooded, for the third time in the past four years, displacing 50 year 3 students, and leaving the school scrambling to accommodate all students.’
After a meeting with Adam Spencer, Director of Catholic Schools, and representatives from Catholic Schools Office (CSO) in December 2023, the committee says planning issues were delaying the demountables.
They told The Echo, ‘the parent body and school have continued to press CSO to make the provision of demountables a priority.
‘Students and teachers are bearing the brunt of this avoidable situations.’
In a statement provided to The Echo, Mr Spencer acknowledged the concerns raised regarding the delay in installing demountable classrooms and the storm-water problems affecting the school community.
Demountable delay
Mr Spencer said, ‘Unfortunately, a variety of events including catastrophic floods in our region, the pandemic and a significant increase in building costs, meant that the original building program for St Finbarr’s had to be postponed and reassessed, along with all DLCS capital works at the time’.
And while he says a hydraulic engineer has begun exploring design solutions to resolve the flooding issue, there were “significant delays in getting the demountables onsite, owing to ‘recent changes in the National Construction Code and the bushfire risk associated with our school’s location’.
The Echo has asked Mr Spencer what the timeframe was regarding the demountable buildings approvals, and other particulars, with regards to agencies that can be contacted for comment with National Construction Codes and bushfire risks.
The Echo asked, What is the particular issue with the code and the school’s plans for demountables?’
‘Also – has CSO lodged a application with RFS? If so, when is that expected to be approved?”
His office replied, ‘Following our communication to the school community, we continue to work to ensure that all statutory requirements are met.
‘Our primary concern is for the ongoing safety of the school community.
For any further inquiry following this, please do not hesitate to contact our media team at [email protected].
Well, ….Talk to the POPE!
Cheers, G”)