Opihi College upgrade now under way; cost over $5m
Work has begun on a multimillion-dollar upgrade of Opihi College’s buildings.
A cultural centre with 11 general classrooms, and another building with two dedicated science laboratories are planned for the Temuka school which has a roll of 275.
Principal Tina Johnson said that while she did not know the budget for the Ministry of Education-funded project, she expected it would be more than $5 million.
The school will be responsible for fundraising for what will go in the classrooms such as furniture, students so far raising about $5000 for a dedicated fund.
A sod-turning ceremony was held on Tuesday to mark the official start of the project.
Timaru district councillor Paddy O’Reilly and iwi representative Hami Te Rahui broke the ground with shovels, followed by a kapa haka performance by the Te Umu Kaha school group.
The school’s original whare was pulled down in 2017.
The new cultural centre would also be the main welcoming entrance, Johnson said.
‘‘It will be the home of Ma¯ oridom. We intend to have it for other cultures but our school does not have a deep multicultural pool.
‘‘We have mainly Ma¯ ori and
Pa¯ keha¯ /European students.’’
Johnson said the centre would ‘‘basically be’’ a dedicated classroom.
In February 2019, the school’s two-storey H Block was condemned and demolished after the discovery of toxic black mould and concerns over asbestos.
Two relocatable classrooms, and space in the school hall, have been used as temporary replacements.
The school’s science laboratories would not be removed until the new ones were in place to minimise disruption for senior science students, Johnson said.
The building project had been
‘‘It will be the home of Ma¯oridom.’’
Principal Tina Johnson
about seven years in the planning, she said, and the new buildings would offer a much better learning place for all students.
It was hoped the new buildings would be completed by the end of this year ready for students starting in 2021.