The facility was initially scheduled to see its first preschoolers through the door on the first day of term one, 2026, but the Victorian Government has announced that capital works won’t be completed in time to make that deadline.
Term one, 2027, is the new goal.
The announcement comes a week before first-round kindergarten applications close.
State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell says it’s not good enough.
“It’s a disgrace that families have only been told about this last-minute, leaving them very little time to research and apply for alternative kinder locations,” Ms Lovell said.
Kialla West Primary School principal Wes Teague said it was no surprise the opening had been delayed, as, from the beginning, many logistics needed to be worked out before it could get up and running.
“It couldn’t be confirmed one way or another (that it would open in 2026) until there was further information around the works taking place,” Mr Teague said.
“We were well aware this was a possibility. It’s a good decision and good common sense to not rush it; to make sure it’s done right.”
Mr Teague said he believed only “one or two” families had ticked the Kialla West kindergarten as their preferred option on their enrolment forms and that they had already found places at different kindergartens.
When the new kindergarten was announced in March 2024, Ms Lovell warned that urgent action would be required to upgrade road infrastructure at the school to be able to cope with the additional traffic.
Work to upgrade the drop-off and pick-up points at the front of the school and in Cemetery Lane, which Ms Lovell says already struggle to cope with demand, has yet to begin.
Ms Lovell also pointed out that no major safety improvements had been made to the school’s pedestrian crossing since a serious incident in 2018, in which a truck collided with the rear of a family’s car, narrowly avoiding hitting children using the crossing.
“When the new kindergarten was announced in 2024, I warned the government that it needed to immediately invest in safety upgrades to the school crossing and drop-off and pick-up area, but no road works have been done, and it’s no surprise that construction of the kinder is behind schedule too,” Ms Lovell said.
She said the government’s failure to complete construction of the kindergarten on time came as no surprise, citing also its failure to deliver stage two of the Goulburn Valley Health redevelopment, the Graham St intersection upgrade and nine weekday return train services, promised to be running by 2023, on time.
