May 13, 2018
The old Greenview State School building has seen generations of young children come and go through its doors, so it seemed a shame that for the past five years it has been sitting vacant in Kingaroy.
For 35 years, it housed the Kingaroy Kindergarten but the kindy shifted out in 2013 into a new purpose-built building around the corner in North Street, Kingaroy.
New life has now been breathed into the old building on the corner of First Avenue with the arrival of the Centre For Supervised Distance Education (CSDE).
Kingaroy Kindy and CSDE celebrated their new lease arrangement with an open day on Friday.
CSDE Director Laurel Cohen and Kylie van Schyndel, a member of the kindy’s management sub-committee for the project, cut a cake to celebrate the new agreement.
“This land was originally gifted to us by Council and is therefore considered a Deed of Grant in Trust,” Kylie said.
This had caused concern for previous kindy committees who were worried about what they could use the building for.
“The one thing that previous committees knew was that they wanted to give back to the community who so generously helped them build their brand new kindy,” Kylie said.
“After many, many discussions with various representatives from the Department of Natural Resources, we identified that whatever we do with this space, it had to be complementary to our Constitution and kindergarten purposes, ie. education.
“Then we met with Laurel …
“In order for Laurel to use the building, we needed to draft a Trustee Lease and submit it to the Department of Natural Resources for approval.
“After a very long process, we have received the final approval.”
Laurel said the building currently catered for 14 students and six supervisors.
The children are enrolled in Distance Education (the old “School Of The Air”) which they qualify to attend under a medical enrolment.
They follow the usual State School curriculum and do tests and exams.
“We are not funded,” Laurel said. “The parents pay for the service out of the Isolated Children’s Allowance and the Carers’ Allowance.
“It works out at $6.00 an hour.”
The students start their classes on school days at 8:00am or 8:30am (depending on the subject) and finish at 3:30pm.
Their teacher is online but local supervisors are also on hand at the CSDE.
Laurel said the Centre grew out of her own three children doing Distance Education at home in 2009.
Another parent asked if their child could join, and the idea started to blossom.
The group shifted into the Girl Guide Hut in Mant Street when their numbers grew to seven students.
“It just kept on growing,” Laurel said.
“It is a better environment for the children.”
The centre has also set up a Produce Exchange and a Street Library in First Avenue to benefit the local community.
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