Day: 7 May 2017

As with the last blog entry, I was reading up into more details of Sydney Public School sell off wave from the late 90s to late 2000s. What I wasn’t fully aware of is that not just selling the entire schools is a common practice, apparently selling part of the school is also done frequently as well. An example article is Squeeze put on Sydney’s overcrowded public schools on news.com.au.

Since 1987, 11 schools have been closed or amalgamated on the north shore – including Milsons Point Public School and North Sydney Public School.

SCHOOL LAND SALES 2000-2012

. Seaforth PS sold land for $2.5m, enrolments have increased since 2006 from 341 to 478

. North Sydney BHS sold land for $1.3m, enrolments stable

. Erskineville PS, threatened sale headed off after public outcry, enrolments up from 174 to 334

. Rozelle PS sold land for $1m, enrolments up from 304 to 537

. Bonnyrigg HS sold land for $1.1m, enrolments up from 776 to 1038

. Northmead HS sold land for $787,000, enrolments upfrom 715 to 896

. Gerringong PS sold land for $5.3m, enrolments up from 358 to 395

. Camden HS sold land for $7.5m, enrolments up from 1051 to 1176

. Hornsby Heights PS sold land for $650,000, enrolments up from 309 to 344

. Rydalmere East PS sold land for $1.8m, enrolments up from 176 to 191

. Willoughby PS sold land for an undisclosed sum (pre-2000), enrolments up from 733 to 939

I wasn’t aware of Willoughby Public School sold off part of school off. I looked at the overhead view of the school and cannot see which nearby part is the obvious subject of this selloff. Willoughby Public School happens to be one of the most crowded schools in North Shore area with the school that is under the proposal for a major upgrade. The funny part is that the money that results in these selloffs will not even able to purchase a decent size block in the same area nowadays.

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I was doing research on various of Sydney Public Schools and the topic various Public Schools being sold off ten or fifteen years ago. I did not have children back then and wasn’t paying attention to this. I was aware of various of local schools being sold off, but it does not seem as important back then. Now with the surging enrolment, the true impact of those sold off are being better understood. One of the articles I read is Sydney schools face queues as sell-off scheme backfires on SMH in 2014, the problem is getting worse since then.

High birth rate and immigration rate just completely upturned Sydney’s School population trend in a matter of years. Now all the schools that got sold off in inner Sydney city are really starting to hurt, imagine hundreds of classes room that can be put into use almost directly with only minimum spending. With all the ready available sites, they can be expanded more easily as well. The crazy thing is that the schools that got sold off probably could fetch double or triple the amount they got earlier if they are sold today. Not to mention state government is busy trying to find sites in the inner city that are suitable and converting them back into schools. This includes a new high-rise high school is going to be built on the old Cleveland Street High School site at a cost of likely in the hundreds of million.

I think the key lesson is with key public infrastructure, we need to be really careful not to get rid of them for quick short term gain. We need to look at state’s future in twenty, thirty years, not just today’s two to four years election cycle period. Particularly in inner city, key

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