The Calvert Story

Former President/s of Music Parents’ Committee & Music Centre Sub-Committee

Ian Calvert:

February 2001 ushered in an unexpected and huge change in my life.  At that time our two sons Gareth and Christopher were students at South Fremantle Senior High School, and my wife Deborah and I were elected to share the position of President of the Music Program’s Parent Committee.  This does not sound momentous in itself; there are lots of parents filling such voluntary positions in schools across the State.  However, I asked the Music Program’s Director Wayne G’Froerer what he felt would be the most useful thing the committee could do for the program and without hesitation he said “get proper facilities for the students”.  In fact Wayne had been putting this idea forward for some years because the music students had been using the same small classroom for rehearsals since he began the program in 1983.

When he suggested it to me, I had the conviction that the “moment had come” to pursue it: 

• I wanted the time we spent on the Parent Committee to be meaningful
• Wayne had seen an inspirational music centre at a high school in Canada while he had been on a recent family visit and had brought back photos
• Recent State elections had seen a new Government installed, and two of the Cabinet Ministers were local Members:  Alan Carpenter was Minister for Education; and Jim McGinty, Attorney General and Minister for Health, had a daughter who had been a student in the Music Program a few years earlier.

This sense of purpose and timing gave me a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the job and looking back now after five years, I can say I needed every last drop in what became an intense and demanding project for a volunteer.  I am writing this now as my own reflections, but throughout it all I had the close support of:

• My wife, Deborah, administrator, submission-writer, mentor and “reality check” amongst many other roles
• Wayne G’Froerer, the hardworking and enthusiastic Director
• Other parents on the committee,  especially committee secretary Sarah Shipp and
• The School Council

I saw that we first needed to gather a lot of information and began by visiting a number of music facilities in both State and private schools.  I was particularly impressed with those at Perth Modern School (essentially three linked buildings which had cost $250,000 each, financed through the sale of school land) and organised to have lunch with their architect Doug Harvey.  He was very generous in sharing ideas for plans, strategies and pitfalls in the process and also referred me to someone with professional acoustic experience to gain some knowledge around that.  All the time we were crystallising the concept most suitable for our program: a purpose-built music facility with rehearsal, teaching (for classes, computer/keyboards and instrumental groups) and sound recording facilities, as well as performance space sufficient for a 40-50 piece band or choir and seating for 100-150 people. By June of that first year we were able to have our first interview with the Minister for Education, Alan Carpenter, in which we presented the history of the music program and our justification for new facilities. 

The deadline for submissions to the Fremantle District Office for consideration in the 2002 DET budget was December 2001, and so in July we began our preparations for this.

I sent a note out to our students asking whether “anyone knew anyone” with architectural experience, because we would need some drawings to form the basis of any submission for funding.  Amazingly, one student – not from the music program! – knew a trainee architect through a “kick-boxing” group who agreed to volunteer her time to draw up plans.  Miranda worked with us to translate our ideas onto paper.  We sought the support of the local ‘feeder’ primary schools, local Members of Parliament, City of Fremantle, City of Perth Band and our neighbours, the Activ Foundation.

By the end of 2001 we had pulled together our first submission for funds, to be decided by May 2002.

We made a decision to intensify our networking during the first few months of 2002, while waiting for the results of our submission.  We approached Fremantle City councillors and the Mayor Peter Tagliaferri, as well as Members of Parliament across all Party lines…Jim McGinty and Carmen Lawrence (ALP), Barbara Scott and Simon O’Brien (Liberal) and Jim Scott (Greens WA) . . . with numerous calls, letters, visits and invitations to all our musical events.  I believe this networking was essential because there were a number of outcomes:

• we kept ourselves visible and awareness of our submission high
• we learned more about what the community around us wanted or needed, particularly through requests from music groups to the City of Fremantle Recreation Officer Lou Westbury;  I began to see that any future music centre would need to serve as both a school and a community facility.

In May we heard that our submission was unsuccessful, but this was accompanied by a very positive letter from DET: the District Office had been very impressed and saw great merit in the concept and had recommended it to the final stage of assessment.  However it had not succeeded given the other priorities at that time.  And so we kept up our lobbying and networking and gathering of information and once again in December 2002 submitted another proposal for funds.

This time we were successful, and in May 2003 we received notification that $1.5 million had been allocated for the project!

The Department tendered out for the architectural work, and we formed a working committee that consisted of:

• Architect (the initial one withdrew, replaced by Sandover Pinder)
• Henry Jaworski from Housing and Works
• Al Hook from Department of Education & Training (DET)
• Music Director Wayne G’Froerer, Principal Ron Bickers, Vice-Principal Judy Semple  and Ian Calvert: these latter formed a sub-committee that “did the rounds” of all schools with music facilities, depending heavily on Wayne’s assessment of what would be functional.

By May 2004 we had finished the details for the tendering process for the Department of Housing and Works.  The contract was awarded to Southdown Construction as the overarching company; they sub-contracted out for specific jobs and the Department of Housing and Works was to oversee the whole process.  The Music Centre was to be constructed by December 2004.

In July work began and in August 2004 local MP Jim McGinty laid the foundation stone.

There were many, many delays during building, e.g. the brickies were organised but then there were no bricks available for them and, by the time the bricks turned up, the workers had moved onto another job!  For the first few months of construction I pulled back from the process because the frustrations were affecting our family life and our boys had long since left the school.  However, I  involved myself again when I saw essential details being neglected, e.g. the slope on the ramp was such that stormwater would run straight down from the upper level (ACTIV Foundation) to the building.  Once again I returned to the many hours of work alongside architects, Housing and Works, DET, musicians, engineers, builders and so on to ensure that our dream was realised.

As in most big projects there is never sufficient funding available to do everything and this project was no different. As a result I spent copious amounts of time trying to find either extra funding or donations to ensure the Centre was not compromised and the facility was as fully operational as possible:

• a submission for school funds in 2004 saw a generous allocation to cover two pianos (one grand) and 50 chairs
• requests to community bodies led to a donation from the ABC production manager of mixer and audio equipment which my sons and I installed with the voluntary help of electronics engineer Tim Wade.
• people from the local community provided pieces of audio and lighting equipment as well as their free time to help provide advice and install.

In May 2005 staff and students of the Music Program moved into their new Centre and on 24 February 2006 it was officially opened by then Minister of Education Ljiljana Ravlich.

Although this may herald a conclusion to the building project, the story of the Music Centre has continued to develop:

• during 2005 our son Gareth started up an Alumni Band, finding music students who had been at “South” back as far as the early 1990s.
• local performers Nova Ensemble used the facility to record a CD in early 2006. They were very satisfied with the results, proving that the facility works! 
• The energetic Music Parents’ Committee is promoting the Centre to the wider music community, with a good deal of the proceeds being directed to support the school’s music program.

Thanks to the energy and determination of some proactive parents like Sue Hall and Jan Newman, and the foresight  in ensuring the Centre could equally serve the community and the school, the Music Centre is moving in a new direction which will incorporate the involvement of local musicians to a much greater degree.