TWO Tamworth schools are set to benefit from a multi-million-dollar cash windfall to be announced in Tuesday’s state budget.
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The Leader can reveal Tamworth Public School and Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School will receive funding for extensive upgrades including new classrooms and learning centres.
Students at Farrer were jumping for joy on Monday amid the news they will receive a funding boost for new facilities.
The funds will see the construction of a new technology block which will include metalwork, woodwork and computer facilities. The existing technology unit will be refurbished and turned into new dorms for the school’s boarding students along with the refurbishment of existing school dorms.
School principal Clint Gallagher said the funding windfall was ‘terrific’ news. “It’s three different sets of work to occur over a period of time, it’s tremendous news for our school,” he said.
“We have been working hard for the first half of this year on planning and we are just finalising things so that hopefully it can go to tender in the second half of this year.”
Mr Gallagher said it had been more than 30 years since a refurbishment of the school dorms and he was looking forward to seeing the project at completion.
Tamworth Public School, the city’s biggest primary school, will receive funding to cater to its growing student population with new, permanent classrooms.
Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson said dollar figures on the projects would not be known until Tuesday’s budget announcements but the news was good for local schools and in addition to $5.4 million announced to help clear local maintenance backlogs.
He said he’d been working with Farrer for the past two years to get the dorm upgrades underway.
“We don’t know the details yet, but they will go to tender to get that work done,” Mr Anderson said. “These projects are locked and loaded, we have been really pushing for it. To see money in the budget for these projects for Farrer and Tamworth Public is really satisfying.
“Tamworth is on the move in terms of population growth, so we need to make sure we not only provide the right facilities with jobs and so-forth, but with education as well.”
“I’m very happy for the students, the teachers and happy for our region as a whole that the government has identified Tamworth as a growth area and they have to meet that demand.”
