Overcrowding at Indooroopilly State High School is out of control because the State Government continues to underfund our public schools.
The government’s failure to plan properly has meant ISHS students have lost their science labs, student support rooms and play areas. And if it wasn’t for the P&C’s hard work and my advocacy, students would have lost their library too.
After years of campaigning, the local community has finally pushed the State Government into developing a masterplan for new buildings at ISHS, but it seems they’re kicking the can down the road until after the October state election. We need the Government to stop playing politics with our school and commit to fully funding the ISHS upgrades now!
Use this page to contact the Education Minister directly and let her know how ISHS overcrowding impacts you and your family. Please also share this page with your friends and neighbours to turn up the pressure on the Education Minister!
Background
We’ve achieved some incredible wins in our advocacy against school overcrowding. We got a commitment to a new primary school, a new admin building for Indooroopilly SS, land acquired next to Ironside SS and more. But it’s clear that high school overcrowding is an ongoing issue in the inner-west, and it’s time for the government to step up.
In December 2023 this came to a head when we learnt that ISHS students could lose their library, instrumental music rooms, storage sheds and more to accommodate 2024 enrollments. So I went to the media and put out a call to the Education Minister to intervene. I never expected that I would be in the situation where I had to beg for my kids’ school to have a library, but that’s the situation we were facing thanks to decades of underfunding from both Labor and LNP governments.
After pushback from our community and the Greens, the Education Minister agreed to our call to urgently step in and provide temporary classrooms. Just over a week later, demountables were being installed on the ISHS oval - an important but temporary win.
But demountables aren’t the solution. We’ve needed new buildings at ISHS for years and I’ve long told the Minister that unless the government stepped up, this is what was going to happen. It's been disappointing to see Labor barely playing catch-up, despite the Department's own enrolment figures clearly predicting this population increase.
After years of advocacy by me and our ISHS community, the state government is finally working on a masterplan for ISHS. From what I’ve seen of the draft masterplan so far, it looks promising. But overcrowding is such a huge issue right now that we can’t wait for years and years to get these new buildings, while the major parties play politics with our school.
Let the Education Minister know there’s no time for delay: they must commit to new buildings at ISHS before the next election!