Construction of new school hall set to start
TAIERI College has been waiting so long to get a new school hall that staff and pupils will struggle to contain their excitement when the first van drives up and people with tool belts jump out, principal David Hunter says.
Ministry of Education education infrastructure services head Kim Shannon announced yesterday a ‘‘preferred’’ contractor had been identified to construct the college’s new multipurpose hall.
Work on the site was expected to begin after Easter and completion was scheduled for December this year.
She said the ministry was now working through the details of the contract with the company.
Because the details of the contract had not been finalised, the name of the contractor and the cost of the construction could not be released yet.
The facility, designed by Baker Garden Architects, will be an auditorium with tiered seating for up to 460 people.
As well as being used for school assemblies, it will also have music and drama facilities with stateoftheart light, sound and acoustics.
Mr Hunter said it would be a multipurpose venue which could be used by community organisations as well.
He said construction had been delayed several times over the past two years, so the school was very excited to see work begin on the site.
‘‘It’s been a long time coming. It’s all go now.’’
He was surprised at how quickly the construction was expected to be completed.
‘‘We’ll take their word for it. If they can get it done by midDecember, that would be great.’’
Mr Hunter said it had been challenging to have school assemblies without a school hall.
‘‘It’s probably had a greater effect on our thespians and musicians because they haven’t had a true stage to strut their stuff on.
‘‘It’s going to be nice to have our bands, our musicians, actors and actresses being able to use a pretty cool facility,’’ he said.
The announcement comes more than two years after Taieri College lost Hislop Hall to fire.
Mr Hunter said the 49yearold hall was severely damaged in an electrical fire in November 2015, and thousands of dollars worth of property, including sports uniforms, trophies, portraits of former principals and school magazines dating as far back as the 1950s, were destroyed.