Prefabs close at last in $44m 'fix' for Bay schools

Selwyn Ridge Primary students will soon say goodbye to portable classrooms that have been taking up space on their school field for years. Photo / George Novak

Many local schools are marking the end of a long road to reconstruction, after their formerly leaky buildings were fixed. Figures released to the Bay of Plenty Times from the Ministry of Education show primary school projects totalling $19 million have either been completed, are in progress or due to start this year.

Most of work includes remediation of leaky buildings and is listed as "weather tightness". Work at intermediate schools and colleges totals more than $33 million.

Robyn Keightley teaches her students from her newly refurbished classroom at Selwyn Ridge

The Bay of Plenty Times reported last year $44 million would be spent repairing 53 leaky buildings in Western Bay schools. The Ministry of Education funds the projects.

When the Bay of Plenty Times visited Selwyn Ridge Primary School in Welcome Bay last week, acting principal Tanya Healy showed us remnants of the school's seven-year construction era: peach-coloured portable classrooms flanking the school field. They used to house five classes.

Acting Principal Tanya Healy says staff and students adapted to years of instruction in small portable classrooms during construction to fix leaky buildings.

She says most of the $3 million listed on the ministry's spreadsheet would've been spent on remediation - work that finished last year.

"The main thing for us is all the plastic wrapping and the scaffolding is down and children have got their place back."

Ms Healy says students, teachers and staff took turns moving out of classrooms into prefabs.

Selwyn Ridge Year 3 teacher Matthew Thomas spent three years in one of the portable rooms which sit down a flight of stairs, apart from the main school, away from toilets, the hall and the office.

"It was just another classroom, a space to create learning. During the winter months, when it was raining like mad, it was horrible.

"But you have to be positive about it. You could say, 'this is yuck,' but that's not positive for our kids."

Up in one of the newly refurbished classrooms, Year 4 and 5 students sit on the floor facing their teacher and a large TV monitor.

Large windows let sunlight shine on warm orange walls. The 8 and 9-year-olds are working on iPads when we arrive.

"Raise your hand if you were in a prefab last year," says Ms Healy. More than half the students put up their hands.

She says the portables are set for removal next month. They'll be replaced with astroturf, thanks in part to a $100,000 TECT grant and $50,000 of fundraising by the PTA. Construction wrapped up last year.

Selwyn Ridge was one of a number of Western Bay schools built in the late 1990s from materials that leaked.

Tahatai Coast Primary principal Ian Leckie says his school was one of the first in the country to get fixed. He says workers finished a new 18-classroom block last year. "We're just getting rid of the last two prefabs from out in the back. Life is normal but we have a totally redesigned school, one of the most up-to-date educational environments in the country." Mr Leckie says the school is still awaiting completion of its administration block, as well as its hall. The ministry pegs the total cost of repair work at Tahatai at around $7 million, including development and temporary accommodation.

It's unclear when the money was spent at any of the schools on the MOE'S list. The ministry is also funding technology upgrades in schools to improve internet capacity.

Ministry of Education Head of Sector Enablement and Support Kim Shannon, says, "We don't hold the full details of which stage of construction or renovation individual school building projects are up to.

"This is because some school projects are managed by us directly, and others are managed by the schools. Projects can remain open in our records for some time until we have addressed any issues which can arise following construction."

A third primary school where MOE spending is listed around $3 million is Golden Sands in Papamoa. Principal Melanie Taylor says a $2.5 million classroom block was finished 18 months ago.

Ms Taylor says Golden Sands is adding around 100 students per year and is about to enter negotiations for another block of classrooms.

"We'll need those early next year. The ministry is aware of that. It takes a while for approval and tenders.

"Time might be tight. We're kind of running out of room a little bit."

As children in brick-red shirts and navy sun hats file past us at Selwyn Ridge, Ms Healy says, "It feels really weird to just be normal now".

Year 3 teacher Matthew Thomas says, "It's great to have our school back."

The project with the highest cost according to MOE data is Papamoa College, where new school construction, a special school satellite and special needs modifications total nearly $8 million.