A visit to Benalla P-12 College by the State Minister for Education James Merlino has given the school some hope it may get urgently needed funds for capital works. Mr Merlino told The Ensign that the $5 million allocated to capital works was not enough to meet the needs of Benalla. Its really important for me to see first-hand the need of schools right across the state, Mr Merlino said. Jac (Member for Northern Victoria, Jaclyn Symes and former Benalla student) invited me to visit Benalla and I was really pleased to come. The most important thing for me is to see the needs of the school and the best way to do that is to talk to Barbara (college principal Barbara OBrien), talk to the students and teachers, look around the school. I know that there was some funding provided in the 14/15 budget (2014/15), but it clearly doesnt meet the long-term needs of the school and my responsibility is to schools right across the state. The school has been unable to agree with the Department of Education on how to spend the $5 million grant allocated to the school before the election last year. One of the classrooms in the block of buildings constructed in the early 60s on the Faithfull St campus has been permanently closed because of high levels of mould in the ceilings. We delivered the biggest infrastructure program in our budget in May, but theres lots, lots more that we need to do, Mr Merlino said. We need to make sure weve got strong capital programs right through the next several years and visiting Benalla P-12 is going to be an important part of that. When challenged if he would meet the election promise of the Coalition to provide another $15 million, Mr Merlino did not want to commit to a specific amount. I dont want to be too partisan in these visits, but the fact is that under the previous government the school building program was cut in half, so new schools werent being built, schools that desperately needed upgrades werent getting upgrades, so we need to address that, he said. All governments are judged on what they do, not what they promise, and the previous government cut the capital program in half and then made a bunch of promises right at the end, weeks before the election. Thats not how I want to operate. Member for Euroa Steph Ryan said while she was pleased the minister had finally visited the college, there needed to be a genuine commitment to rebuild the school. Ive been working closely with the school since before last years election when I pressed the Coalition Government to fully fund the regeneration project, Ms Ryan said. Labors refusal to commit to the regeneration has been a crushing blow to the school community, but we have gone back to the drawing board to discuss how best to get it on the governments agenda. The visit to Benalla was part of a tour by the minister to the north east including Seymour, Wangaratta and Yarrawonga. Caption Text: Ministerial visit: Benalla P-12 assistant principal Paul Challis, principal Barbara OBrien, school captain Darius Hubbard, Education Minister James Merlino, Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes, school vice-captain Adam Hamidon and school captain Kaitlin Kaine. Classroom closed: Benalla P-12 has already spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to get rid of mould in the ceilings of buildings built in the 1960s.