Calls for a new public high school for Caroline Springs and Taylors Hill have intensified with a new ‘growth map’ showing the area will be home to about 81,000 new residents in the next five years.
According to the urban growth map produced by Melton council, the areas of Taylors Hill West, Plumpton, Rockbank and Kororoit are expected to bear the brunt of the population explosion.
Parents across Caroline Springs and Taylors Hill are calling for both a new high school and a new year 10 to 12 campus because students are being turned away from the one closest to their homes.
Lakeview Senior College in Caroline Springs, which caters for years 10 to 12, is bursting at the seams, with students from three prep to year 9 schools – Springside, Creekside and Brookside – vying for places each year.
The closest options for unsuccessful students are Taylors Lakes Secondary College or Copperfield College.
Sally Cefai and Eva Fattore belong to a group of parents circulating a petition calling for a new high school and senior campus in the area. The petition has more than 1600 signatures.
Ms Fattore said the new figures heightened the need for a new high school in the area.
“At the moment, we have something like 12 primary schools to four or five high schools, so kids are not going to get the right education and support in their area,” she said.
The urban growth map also includes plans to build two new primary schools – Taylors Hill West Primary and Plumpton P-9 – next to each other.
Ms Cefai said parents wanted to see Taylors Hill West turned into a high school.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Martin Dixon did not respond specifically to a request for comment on the projections, only saying that the former Labor government “neglected to build new schools in key growth areas across metropolitan and regional Victoria, and left Victorian schools with a $420 million school maintenance backlog”.
