Tardy note: School rebuilds years late
Just 12 of the 115 greater Christchurch schools in a $1 billion building and repair programme have been completed.
A total of 31 schools had been scheduled for completion by mid-2017, according to 2013 Ministry of Education plans. The ministry now says it had revised the number of schools it expected to be complete by year’s end to 18. Of those, 14 were under construction, three were at the design stage and one was delayed due to difficulty finding a site.
However, the ministry said the more than $1b programme, which included 13 entirely new builds, was still on track to finish in 2022.
Some schools appeared resigned to the ‘‘stressful’’ and ‘‘frustrating’’ delays, while others welcomed the extra time to plan with their communities.
The ministry’s rebuild programme 2013 business case said $500 million would be invested by the beginning of 2017, when 22 of the 115 schools would be completed. As of this month, 12 have been finished.
About $857m had been spent or committed so far and the costs and time frames of the remaining work were being reviewed. About a third of rebuild schools, many of them multi-million dollar developments, had already encountered delays of up to two years.
Officials responsible for the schools rebuild, including Associate Education Minister Tim Mcindoe, were ‘‘comfortable’’ with the progress because longer development times gave schools more say over the end result.
Four of the completed schools – Avonhead, Wharenui, Shirley and Cashmere primary schools – were at least a year late. Rolleston College and Haeata Community Campus were finished on time by private developers, while a third new build in the programme, Pegasus Bay School, was planned years before the Canterbury earthquakes.
Rebuild schools had their general property funding frozen, leaving many struggling for space as buildings were demolished. Christchurch Girls’ High (CGHS), Boys’ High (CBHS), Kaiapoi High, Beckenham and Wharenui schools were among those operating out of boardfunded pre-fabs, libraries, staff rooms and second sites.
Seventeen schools were entering the programme early, including Halswell West School, which Education Minister Nikki Kaye said last week was being fast-tracked to open in 2019, rather than 2022.
CBHS and CGHS disagreed they had been ‘‘fast-tracked’’. CBHS headmaster Nic Hill said their rebuild should have started years earlier.
CGHS board chair Mike Lay said its 2018 rebuild start date was brought forward to 2015 after photos of water pouring through its auditorium ceiling were sent to ministry staff.
Ministry head of infrastructure Kim Shannon said completion dates in the 2013 business case were only indicative and the ‘‘top priority has been starting the design process’’ for 85 schools.
The ministry lengthened that process to better include school boards and introduced ‘‘a design quality assurance step’’, she said. ‘‘We’re really comfortable with where we are in the [rebuild] process.’’
Shannon said the ministry had pursued projects outside the schools rebuild programme, such as Rolleston’s Lemonwood Grove School and extra classrooms to cope with unexpected population shifts.
Ministry head of the Christchurch schools rebuild Angela Hawkings said the ministry ‘‘needed time’’ to ensure weathertightness, land quality and earthquake strengthening.
‘‘We’re also a little bit at the mercy of the weather gods.’’