Calls for comprehensive upgrades at Esperance Senior High School are continuing to grow louder, as it's been revealed students and teachers are being forced to work from dilapidated buildings, some of which had been slated for demolition in 2001 due to their condition.
First established in 1966 for 400 students, numerous ad hoc additions have been made to the school over the years, with its capacity increasing to 1000 students as the town's population grew from about 3000 to approximately 14,000 people.
However numerous community stakeholders say these smaller investments haven't resulted in the school being fit for purpose, with the Shire of Esperance identifying it as its number one priority for government infrastructure in the town requiring upgrades.
A particular bugbear for students, teachers and parents is the school's south wing which consists of 1960s buildings originally destined for demolition following a building assessment report more than two decades ago.
Despite this, the buildings continue to be used to this day.
A vocal advocate for government investment in the school, The Nationals WA MP for Roe, Peter Rundle, described the south wing as a collection of "small classrooms, stairwells suffering from concrete cancer, railings compromised by rust, windows that cannot safely or easily open, and poor natural lighting, grimy with years of wear and tear".
Mr Rundle said the "disgraceful condition" of the school posed serious work health and safety issues for students and teachers, who he said were being provided with a physical environment "not fit for contemporary inclusive education purposes".
After Esperance SHS failed to attract substantial funding in the 2023-2024 State Budget for refurbishment, Mr Rundle said he personally fielded phone calls from "distraught members" of the local community asking how the school had "once again been overlooked".
"The Esperance community has waited patiently in good faith for the review to be completed and for some news that Esperance Senior High School has been prioritised for funding," Mr Rundle said.
Despite the region upholding its reputation as a vibrant arts community, with several of the school's former students ending up on the national stage, the original library building, which reportedly has a leaking roof, serves as the performing arts centre.
Esperance SHS P & C president Michelle Handley said as a result, students were often forced to rehearse and perform in a thoroughfare for other classrooms, rather than in the building itself.
"When Albany's Performing Art Centre opened this year, I was heartened by the Premier's statements about the importance of the arts to the Albany community, as Esperance shares that, but what our students get is an old library that acts as the school's performing arts centre and has a stage held together by duct tape," Ms Handley said.
"Because the roof leaks, a keyboard had to be drained before it could be played this year and there is no soundproofing in these buildings either."
Ms Handley said a small delegation recently presented data from the students about the school's facilities as part of a briefing with WA Education Minister Tony Buti.
"When asked about the school's toilets, the vast majority of respondents said they tried to avoid going throughout the day so they didn't have to use the school's facilities," Ms Handley said.
"They were achieving this by doing things like restricting their hydration, which we know has an impact on their learning outcomes.
"We also have situations like kids in wheelchairs who are having to be carried up stairs, Aboriginal programs that are being run from dongas, and a gymnasium so undersized that if the kids want to play the full court, they end up smacking into the walls because there is no gap between where the court lines end and the surrounding walls.
"As for the section of the senior campus that was meant to be demolished - that looks like a prison and it has essentially not been touched since the 60s."
Despite the many issues with the school's infrastructure, Ms Handley said the local community acknowledged there were other schools around WA that had been built in a similar era which also required refurbishment, and so were not asking for a total rebuild but rather comprehensive upgrades to the buildings that had remained relatively untouched since the 1960s.
"The kids here are achieving great outcomes and the teachers are doing their best - but the point is that they are having to make do...both the kids and teachers are feeling increasingly defeated and exhausted by always having to make do," Ms Handley said.
Following the briefing with Mr Buti, the delegation completed a submission requested by the minister, outlining the significance of the school's infrastructure to the whole Esperance community and the region's economy.
Included in the submission was anecdotal evidence and testimonials, verified by the local school teachers union, highlighting that the inadequacy of the school's facilities had contributed to some staff members resigning.
Ms Handley said these departures often left "big holes" in their local community.
"These have often been people who serve key functions, not only at our school, but more broadly in our community, and they are never easy people or positions to replace," she said.
"For example, when our former chair and their partner left, that took two mental health professionals out of Esperance, so when we lose people because of the state of the school's facilities - it's the whole community that loses."
Esperance Residential College sits alongside Esperance SHS campus and provides a home to as many as 100 year 7-12 students from within the local shire and the surrounding regions.
The boarding students have the option of either attending Esperance SHS or the only other secondary school in the region - the privately-owned Esperance Anglican Community school.
The next closest public secondary high school to Esperance is a 400 kilometre trip to Kalgoorlie or a 500km trip to Albany.
With Esperance's medium income sitting below both the State and national averages, Ms Handley said this meant, for many families living in the region, Esperance SHS was the only realistic option for their children's schooling.
"We are not talking about a school community in a leafy suburb that is cashed up and has the luxury of going somewhere better - we need to have good public school facilities to help with the life trajectory of our kids who live here," she said.
Labor MP for Mirrabooka Meredith Hammat read out Mr Buti's response when the issue was raised in State parliament recently, which highlighted there are more than 800 public schools across the State in the same age bracket as Esperance SHS.
With upgrades for four STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) classrooms due for completion by early next year, Ms Hammat said the government had also committed $2 million to the school as part of a maintenance blitz program.
"The Cook Labor government is providing upgrades to the school, but we share an understanding that Esperance Senior High School, like some other schools in WA, has ageing facilities that would benefit from refurbishment and upgrades," Ms Hammat said.
She said infrastructure considerations for Esperance SHS were currently being assessed, but the three highest priority defects, which included loose ceilings and roof fixtures, had been remediated as a matter of priority at the minister's request,
"Additional planning for potential upgrades are to be considered when the department puts programs together and as funding becomes available," Ms Hammat said.
"Resolution of the next lot of priority defects will be addressed through the department's usual maintenance processes and planning to determine costs and time frames are processing accordingly."
