School holidays will no longer be a stressful experience for the students at St Georges Basin Public School.
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Since 2012 many students and now their siblings dreaded going on holidays.
They did not want to leave their school and all their precious work unguarded.
In September 2012 arsonists broke into school, lit a fire which destroyed four classrooms.
The school community, ever since the fire, had pleaded to get security fence built around the school.
The school had also been broken into over the years but luckily nothing disastrous as the 2012 fire.
Current Parents and Citizen President Tracy Mandavy was the driving force behind getting the fence.
She said it was a long but important struggle.
“The kids were worried when they went on holidays, wondering what was going to happen and if their stuff was going to be there when they got back,” she said.
“A few of them did go through the fire and then also the vandalism.
“So to now know the fence is up for these upcoming holidays means their anxiety won't be as high for these kids.”
She was always determined to get the fence built and was in for the long haul.
“I thought it would take longer than it did and I thought our daughter Natasha would had finished primary school. She is in year three now and thought we would get the fence after she finished,” Mrs Mandavy.
She said it was an exciting day when they got the call to say they would be getting the fence which was recently completed.
Mrs Mandavy said thanks must to the State Member for the South Coast Shelley Hancock for her support and work on getting the fence.
“Shelley took the issue to parliament, she wrote letters as well and she answered all my letters I sent in and so we can’t thank her enough,” she said.
The P&C president gets a feeling of satisfaction when she sees the fence.
Many other parents are pleased the school is now more secure.
“A parent came up to me last week and said her child had high anxiety but now just knowing the fence is up helps her child which is a great feeling,” Mrs Mandavy said.
She said the fence was not an eyesore.
“For what our school has gone through, it was something we needed and so we think it looks fine,” she said.
Read about the day classrooms were destroyed FIRE GUTS SCHOOL