SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS Delays to planned building works – update from the VCD School Council

We’d like to share an update with the school community about the planned building improvements for VCD.
As many of you know, VCD has exciting plans in place to refurbish classrooms, create shared spaces, and further develop career pathways for our students (for example by investing in media and production facilities).
Unfortunately, these capital works plans have been delayed by lease negotiations between the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) and Deaf Children Australia (DCA).
Although VCD has a long and rich history on the current school site, we are effectively tenants. VSBA and DCA have been unable to agree on new terms and are continuing negotiations.
Although our school lease has expired, an extension has been put in place until the end of the year.
We hope that the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) and Deaf Children Australia (DCA) will negotiate in good faith in the best interests of our students and community. However, until a new lease is in place, building works cannot begin.
We’ll provide updates to the school community as we receive more information.
In the meantime, we’re sharing the recent correspondence from VSBA regarding the lease discussions:
  • The existing lease has been extended from 8 May 2024 to 24 December 2024, to allow the parties enough time to negotiate the new long-term lease agreement.
  • The reason for the new 24 December end date is that the long-term lease is anticipated to take several months to resolve due to the disagreement between DCA and VSBA as to the legal status of the land. As VSBA is of the view that the land is permanently reserved Crown land (as supported by legal advice), from our perspective any lease will need to be issued under the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 which triggers a range of approvals including from DEECA and the Minister for Environment. The December end date gives sufficient breathing room to resolve the land status disagreement, negotiate the key terms, finalise drafting and obtain any necessary approvals.
  • The department’s standard position is to not commence with substantial capital works until appropriate security of tenure is achieved, due to the unacceptable risk imposed on the project. Once the new lease agreement is finalised we will put the project out to tender.

School Council is working behind the scenes to see constructive progress. We encourage you to reach out to us if you have questions.