THE Penola Community Library redevelopment will no longer proceed with the project unable to attract enough funding.
Penola High School acting principal Lesley Okholm last week announced a number of classroom alterations to bring the education facility in line with South Australia’s altered teaching structure transitioning Year 7 students to high school in 2022.
The overall redevelopment – which will continue in a modified form – included renovating three classrooms on the school’s ground floor to improve library access, communication between staff and patrons and modernise the toilet facilities.
However, Ms Okholm said the library would now remain as is and public access would continue at the site with separation between community users and students.
“As a school our philosophy is that we are at the heart of the community and we are pleased the library is a service that we can support and provided for local people,” Ms Okholm said.
“We are still working with our architect on plans to improve other aspects of our school and will share the designs with the school community and wider public when they are finalised.”
Penola resident Ulrich Grey-Smith – who previously called for the concept of a community library off the school grounds to be explored – labelled the announcement disappointing and remained hopeful the reintroduction of Saturday morning hours would be considered.
“We have missed having the library open on Saturday mornings and want those hours back just like everywhere else has,” Mr Grey-Smith said.
“Before the morning hours were cut it was a vibrant scene and we went there with our children where I would read to them regularly.
“We saw lots of people using the space to drop off or pick up books and most of them utilised those hours because they were working full time throughout the week.”
Mr Grey-Smith said the Saturday opening hours – which were removed in March 2019 – were critical for the community.
“We are still quite upset the hours of the library have been cut and we are happy if the facility stays where it is because it is not about the building but about what is inside,” he said.
“If it is important enough for a redevelopment it should be important enough for Saturday mornings.”
