Pause in planning for new Ōmokoroa schools frustrates parents

Land on the corner of Ōmokoroa and Prole Rds has been put aside for schools but the Government has paused the project. Photo / Alex Cairns

Parents of teens facing an hour’s bus ride on a highway notorious for delays to get to class are frustrated by the lack of progress on building two new schools in their fast-growing community.

Earthworks for Ōmokoroa’s new primary school and first secondary school had been “on track” to start early this year, the former Education Minister says, but the lot remains empty.

The Ministry of Education says the Ōmokoroa schools are among up to 350 projects in pre-construction on hold for a value-for-money review.

A local father says meanwhile kids are spending a “stupid amount of time” on buses travelling State Highway 2 to high schools in Tauranga.

Former community board member Greig Neilson said he pushed for the local school so his children could attend but he had become “disengaged” after seeing no progress on the lot.

“Four months ago the Ministry said the geotech and earthworks were underway but I drive past the site every day and see that isn’t the case,” he said.

Neilson, who administered western school bus networks in Tauranga, said his last official communication from the Ministry suggested the earliest opening date was 2025 but his personal estimation was 2027.

This was because it typically took two years to build a school and the dirt needed to be moved in the summer months.

Composite picture showing the lack of change in the land use over the space of a year. Photo / Alex Cairns

Neilson said he became involved in the cause after seeing high school students boarding buses nearly two hours before school started, 4km from the new school site.

“It’s a stupid amount of time for kids as young as 13 to spend on a bus and it affects their ability to study and take on extracurricular activities,” Neilson said.

The government bought land on the corner of Prole and Ōmokoroa Rds for the schools in 2019 and allocated funding in 2021. They were expected to cater for more than 1100 students.

Ōmokoroa is expected to be home to 10,000 people in the future, according to the local council, with new planning rules to allow for more houses to be built signed off this week.

Sarah Fletcher said she moved to Ōmokoroa late last year believing her 10-year-old son would be able to attend his first year of high school at the new school.

She said she had not looked at other options, as she knew “from other parents how much of a pain it is to ride the bus into town”.

“I hope the school is built in time because I don’t think putting him on a bus for an hour each day would be something we’d look at,” she said.

The bus route between the New Ōmokoroa College and Tauranga Girls' College takes 54 minutes.

In 2018 Jo Linthwaite started a petition to Parliament to build Ōmokoroa a high school. Her daughter is now in her second year at Tauranga Girls’ College.

Linthwaite said it took “well over an hour” for her daughter to travel to school every day from Whakamārama – longer if traffic meant students missed the connecting bus in Bethlehem.

“About a month ago it was a three-hour journey home because of the Friday traffic,” Linthwaite said.

Whakamarama mum Jo Linthwaite started the petition in 2019. File photo /George Novak

Linthwaite said this was hard for her daughter, who had to wait for the bus in the dark during some months.

She said it was “a real shame” that construction of the new school had not started.

Why it’s paused

Ministry of Education head of property Sam Fowler told the Bay of Plenty Times Ministry-led projects across schools and kura in pre-construction were being reviewed for .

“The cost to build a classroom has increased significantly over the past few years – we need to bring costs down and make sure we’re achieving good value across all projects in our programme,” Fowler said.

The timeframe for building the Ōmokoroa Schools was subject to the review and prioritisation of national and regional needs, and the community would be updated after the review.

In a February press release, Education Minister Erica Stanford said there had been “cost escalations” and some schools were “expecting exciting, bespoke building projects that are not able to be delivered on.

“It is deeply concerning that many of these projects, years in the planning, were not underpinned by a value-for-money approach from the beginning.”

Ex-Education Minister Jan Tinnetti.

Former Education Minister and Tauranga-based Labour list MP Jan Tinetti said she was “really disappointed” by the lack of progress on the site.

Tinetti, who announced last March building would begin this year, said her last briefing on the project was before the election where she was told construction was “on target [to start in] early 2024”.

She said the only work done so far, however, was removing the houses and an orchard on the site.

“To see the pullback from that statement is hugely frustrating because I worked really hard on the project because I knew the need in that community.”

Tinetti said with Ōmokoroa primary schools close to capacity and older students on b, the project “couldn’t happen fast enough”.

“You can see the growth happening out there and the urgency around ensuring the schooling situation is well catered for.”

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson of National said Stanford announced in February that many school property-related projects couldn’t be delivered within their allocated budget or timeframe and Ōmokoroa’s were among the projects identified.

“The subsequent delays have been a blow to many local families who want certainty that their children can be educated locally.”

What principals say

Ōmokoroa Point School principal Sandra Portegys said strategic planning for the school year was challenging without updates on the projects.

The school had opened six new classrooms since 2020 and felt ongoing pressure with “many more houses being built on the peninsula”.

Ōmokoroa Point School principal Sandra Portegys. Photo / Alex Cairns

Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said he supported “local kids going to their local schools”.

After riding the bus to the Kaimai for a school camp, he said he was “stunned” by the traffic and felt for the kids from the area attending his college in Tauranga.

“My heart goes out to those little ones who make that trip morning and night,” Gordon said.

Gordon was a part of the planning team for the new high school - which included principals, teachers and iwi - and said their last meeting had been cancelled three weeks ago and they were to be updated in June or July.

Harriet Laughton is a multi-media journalist based in the Bay of Plenty.