$126m for school rebuilds

The Government is pumping $126m into four new projects as part of its national schools rebuild programme. In July last year it committed to a long-term plan that would see new schools and classrooms built, to meet demand for around 100,000 extra student places for children entering schools over the next 10 years. At the end of last year, the Government then announced $400 million in new funding for most state schools to invest locally in building companies and tradies to fix leaking roofs and windows and do other repair and building work. Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was the most ambitious school redevelopment programme by a New Zealand government. Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins said $48.5m would go to Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The project brought the total investment in Northcote College to $60m since 2018. The other school redevelopments included $33.5m to extend an existing redevelopment project at Wanaka’s Mt Aspiring College to replace poor condition relocatable classrooms and configure the site for future growth. Construction is expected to start in early 2021. About $21m will go towards the rebuild of Twizel Area School, replacing existing relocatable classrooms that are up to 49 years old and in poor condition. Design work will start in early 2021. A further $23m will be used for rightsizing Spotswood College in Taranaki, and replacing poor condition classrooms. Design work will start from the middle of 2021.