Classrooms on hold to cut costs
Māpua School along with Motueka High School will miss out on new classrooms after cost-cutting measures from the government. Photo: Anne Hardie.
Māpua School and Motueka High School both miss out on new classrooms in the Government’s cost-cutting measures that has put 100 school building projects on hold around the country.
Māpua School had four new classrooms in the pipeline including replacing two older classrooms, while Motueka High School was planning another four classrooms to cater for a growth in its roll.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education reviewed 352 ministry-led projects that were still at pre-construction stage because the cost to build a classroom had increased significantly in the past few years and it wants to achieve better cost efficiencies. That review, which will yield about $2 billion of forecast savings, is now completed and Mapua and Motueka are two of the schools with projects that ‘will not proceed at this time’.
At Māpua, principal Sharon Prestidge says it’s disappointing the builds will not go ahead after two years in the planning process, but the school already has alternative plans to refurbish the two classrooms that were going to be demolished and she says they will make the most of what they have.
The ministry has put the new classrooms for the 252-student school on hold because its figures show the predicted school roll will not grow enough to warrant the build.
“It is surprising, but there just isn’t the numbers of young families in our zone that you think there would be. The housing costs in our zone are comparatively high, so young families can’t afford to buy.
“The disappointing part for us was it came at the end of a two-year-long process. For us, it’s a repeated cycle of disappointment and time and energy for nothing.”
She says no-one would argue about the need for the review because it was “surprising how little we could get for the money budgeted” and there were inconsistencies between schools in the type of build and specs. The standard of future classrooms will need to be fit for purpose though, she says.
At Motueka High School, a six-classroom, two-storied block is fortunately already under construction which principal John Prestidge says was much needed and will cater for 800 students. But the school’s roll is already at 720 and will probably begin next year with about 750 students, and he says it was good to have those next four classrooms in the pipeline. Those classrooms would have increased capacity at the school to 1,000 students which is where the school roll is expected to be in five to 10 years.
“To be honest, it is disappointing to have projects paused as the original timeline would have meant we were well prepared for anticipated roll growth for the next several years. We already have new roll-growth classrooms near completion and the ones that have been paused were the next stage. With the pausing we are back to a more reactive model and the risk is that we won’t have teaching spaces before they are desperately needed.
“There is understanding that there is only so much money and there are areas of higher priority. The frustration is that we are always playing catch up on property and this can lead to pressures on staff and students.”
The six classrooms being built now are expected to be completed in November and until they are built, John says the school is under pressure.
A number of classes have to be slotted into different classroom spaces which means those students may have to move between three and four classrooms during the week.