‘Heartbreak’ for high-needs students
Parents of school students with high and complex needs are scrambling to come to terms with the prospect their children may not be able to attend the only specialist day school in the top of the South Island.
Matai School in Nelson last week said a Ministry of Education review of the school’s “shovel ready” plans to build a new base and high school satellite, put the much-needed shift to Richmond in doubt. It meant half of its students would no longer have a place at the school next year, the school’s leaders said.
Parent Jody Loder said she was “absolutely devastated” by the development.
Her 17-year-old son Chris, who had autism, attended the school’s temporary high school satellite class at Nayland College. The high school had provided the space when ministry promised a new satellite space there.
But that was five years ago, and now the high school needed the teaching space back.
“These kids have nowhere else to go, it’s heartbreaking,” Loder said.
She and her husband couldn’t afford to quit their jobs, but one of them would have to, as mainstream schooling was not appropriate for their son, she said.
Loder was among parents at a packed community hui called by the school on Thursday night, to try to keep the relocation project to the Salisbury Rd site on track.
They described how their children had thrived under the care of the school’s specialists.
But the current base school near the Maitai River was cramped, old and not fit for purpose, they said.
Dreams of children having a space they deserved with doors wheelchairs could fit through, and facilities like hoists, had faded with the prospect that the redevelopment plans, first mooted 10 years ago, might not go ahead.
Parents of younger children now didn’t have the chance to enrol at the school, when the project would have increased the school roll.
The current Maitai base, a new primary satellite at Tāhunanui and one at Henley school were full.
The Ministry of Education said the project was one of 352 across 305 schools and kura the ministry was reviewing to “identify opportunities to achieve better value for money and support the ministry in providing quality learning spaces and facilities when and where they are needed most”.
The ministry reiterated yesterday it was committed to the redevelopment of Matiai School.
Head of property Sam Fowler said the ministry expected “to provide certainty to the school as to the path forward for the project in the coming weeks”.
The ministry intended construction would begin on two satellite teaching spaces at Nayland College on completion of another project there, expected to start soon, he said.
“Ahead of the completion of the planned projects we will work with Maitai School to provide alternative suitable accommodation arrangements where required.”
Parent Koren Grason said it was cavalier to throw already struggling families into turmoil, “and say ‘oh we’ll figure something out.”
Change was hard for the students, and that had a ripple effect back on the families, she said.
“Every child deserves an education. The current education system doesn’t fit all of the students, therefore the system has to make accommodations.”
Nayland College acting principal Hannah Banks confirmed the school would have to scramble to find specialist staff to cater for the high needs students, with its own learning support space “bursting”.
Nelson MP, Labour’s Rachel Boyack said she was angry the school was included in a review around value for money.
“These are our most vilnerable kids, they deserve ... all the money spend on them for the best facilities possible.
“The work for students with disabilities should be ringfenced and not be part of that review.”
A spokesperson for Education Minister Erica Stanford last week said she had asked for an urgent update about Maitai School.
Maitai School principal Jenny Milne said the minister couldn’t make it to Thursday’s meeting, but “would make the effort to get here when she can”.