Storeroom becomes classroom
Classrooms are bulging to capacity at North Canterbury schools, forcing principals and boards to come up with their own solutions.
This could mean lessons on the grass at Woodend School, while Swannanoa School’s board of trustees is converting a storeroom into a classroom to manage the growth.
Principal Andrew Retallick said Woodend School would be at ‘‘breaking point’’ by term three next year if something was not done soon.
“In my experience, anything with the Ministry of Education from planning to completion takes at least 12 months.
“I have conveyed to the ministry, ‘What are we supposed to do? Will I be teaching my students on the grass, or will we be cramming them into our classrooms?’.”
The ministry has already refurbished two old classrooms, but the school’s roll is expected to reach its capacity of 490 in term four, and pass 600 over the next five to 10 years. It comes on the back of the booming nearby Ravenswood subdivision.
Schools around the country are feeling the pressure after the ministry announced a review of building projects.
Swannanoa School principal Brian Price said the ministry spent $70,000 last year designing an extension to an existing classroom block to cater for roll growth, with the school’s roll expected to pass 300 for the first time this year.
The project is now in doubt, prompting the board of trustees to turn a boardowned storeroom into a classroom, and buy a shipping container for storage.
“It is not ideal, and we will need to rethink how we run our school, but we don’t have any spare space,” Price said.
The schools are among five North Canterbury projects on the ministry’s list of 352 building projects under review.
Education Minister Erica Stanford announced an inquiry in February, which immediately put the brakes on the projects. At the time, she said the scope of the building works was “unrealistic and unaffordable”.
Woodend School board of trustees chairperson Mark Paterson said its options were limited by the size of the school site.
“The ministry has already said they wouldn’t go above 650 because of the site, so we need to be starting to think about what happens when we get to 650.
“Do we need to take over council land, or does the ministry need to look at building another school?”
New classrooms have been in the pipeline at Te Kura o Tuahiwi for several years due to roll growth.
Principal Dot Singh said the build was expected to begin in December, but was delayed and was now on hold.
“We are the only kura in North Canterbury to meet the needs of whānau who want immersion and bilingual education.”
Kaiapoi North School principal Jason Miles said his school would need at least one new classroom next year to cater for roll growth.
“We don’t want schools being in the situation of teaching in libraries, halls, staffrooms or any space they can find.”
Amuri Area School principal Matt Barlow said the school was managing its roll growth for now, but “continued growth will add pressure”.
“We are continuing to plan based on our current designs, and to look for ways to save money on the overall budget.”
Woodend, Tuahiwi and Kaiapoi North schools are all in the Kaiapoi High School zone.
The high school was redeveloped in 2018 with a capacity of 1100, and has a master plan for future growth to 1800 students.
The roll passed 1050 this year, but principal Jason Reid said he had received no indication when the next classroom block would be built.
Te Tai Runga (south) Hautū (leader) Nancy Bell said the Ministry of Education would continue to deliver roll growth teaching spaces at Woodend School “as required”.
She said no building projects were planned at Kaiapoi High School.
“Roll growth would only be considered when there are increased numbers of in-zone students.
“We continue to work directly with school communities, because population trends are dynamic and subject to change over time.”
Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air