The WA government has bowed to public pressure and dumped plans to move Perth's only academically selective school to a high-rise city building in favour of constructing another secondary school to ease enrollment demands.
Under the plan announced during the election campaign, the Perth Modern site would have become a regular local intake secondary school and a new academically selective school would have been located in a high-rise city building.
But on Tuesday, the government announced a high school would instead be built alongside Subiaco Oval at Kitchener Park to take pressure off existing inner suburb schools, and Perth Modern would remain where it is.
Opposition Leader Mike Nahan said it was a victory for people power and common sense, while WA-based Foreign Minister Julie Bishop expressed gratitude to those who fought to keep Perth Modern in its present form.
Construction of Inner City College will start next year and will open in 2020 for Year 7 students, before expanding to cater to 2000 students to Year 12 by 2025.
Education Minister Sue Ellery said 2020 was a critical deadline as enrolment numbers at nearby high schools would be unsustainable by then.
Ms Ellery said the school would be built in stages, with the first costing $68 million, funded by $53 million the previous Barnett government had flagged for refurbishing City Beach High School, as well as an additional $15 million.
"Population growth is going backwards on the coastal side in the City Beach area ... it is growing in the inner city suburbs and the inner north," she said.
Parts of the stadium structure will be knocked down, with the heritage-listed gates to remain and the playing surface to be used by the school.
Existing grandstand space will be offered as part of ongoing negotiations with the West Australian Football Commission.
However, Subiaco mayor Heather Henderson wasn't pleased. "Council's preferred position would be that the green space on Kitchener Park is retained for community use and junior sport," she said.
Premier Mark McGowan previously claimed his government had a mandate for the high-rise school plan, but last month the opposition received a petition with 6000 signatures opposing changes to Perth Modern.
The original high-rise idea included a new and expanded Scitech, but the state government is yet to announce plans for the facility.
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