THE state government will sell the old Lalor Park primary school site, the second City of Whittlesea school site to be earmarked for sale within weeks.
The 2.7-hectare site, in a prime residential 1 zone, will first be offered to other government departments and then to Whittlesea council.
Education Department spokesman Stuart Teather said that if still not sold, it would be put on the open market.
Last month, the department announced it was selling the disused Mernda Primary School in Johnsons Road, which had been damaged by vandals.
Lalor Park and Lalor Park West primary schools were merged two years ago to become Lalor Gardens Primary School. The merged school is working from the Lalor Park site in Linoak Avenue while a new facility is being built at the Lalor Park West site in Kingsway Drive. The school will move to the Kingsway Drive centre when school resumes on July 16.
The new $7.5 million school has purpose-designed facilities, including 16 classrooms and four project spaces.
Mr Teather said $83,044 would be provided for external works and some furniture.
“The department has provided additional grants to ensure the school received fully functional facilities, including a grant for external works,” he said.
“The school has previously agreed to contribute additional funding for landscaping works to enable the completion of its project.”
But Lalor Gardens school council president Connie Mihalas said the school was short of funds for landscaping, describing the site as a “mud pool”.
Ms Mihalas said the 320 students would have to have split lunch breaks so they could play on the limited synthetic surfaces outside. Parents had been advised to send their children to school in gumboots.
She said the old Lalor Park school site would be worth millions of dollars and called on the government to pay for landscaping.
