Lease Extension Communication to Community -Auslan
Lease Extension Communication to Community -English
Dear parents and carers,
As you know, this year the Department of Education has been re-negotiating our school’s lease agreement with Deaf Children Australia.
I would like to assure you that the Department and Deaf Children Australia are working towards a resolution as a matter of highest priority.
At this point, negotiations are ongoing and I write to you today to let you know our lease has again been extended until 4 April, 2025 while these negotiations continue.
Please be assured there will be no disruption to learning, and school will resume, as usual at the beginning of Term 1, 2025.
Please also be assured that the Department remains committed to securing the future of the Victorian College for the Deaf, including upgrading and modernising the school.
As you also know, our school received $10 million to undertake a modernisation project in the 2020-21 State Budget.
Notwithstanding the lease negotiations, the capital works project will continue to progress.
I will update you again when there is an outcome, but please be assured there will be no disruptions for our students.
If you have further questions, you can phone the VSBA on 1800 896 950 or email vsba@education.vic.gov.au
You are also welcome to speak to me directly when school resumes by getting in touch via the school’s front desk.
As always, I thank you for your ongoing support for Victorian College For The Deaf.
Marg Tope
Principal
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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
