Tristan Cheer, principal of Eskdale School, with the start of the school rebuild that the Ministry of Education has suddenly cut funding to. Photo / Paul Taylor
Tristan Cheer, principal of Eskdale School, with the start of the school rebuild that the Ministry of Education has suddenly cut funding to. Photo / Paul Taylor
Eskdale School is fighting against a Ministry of Education decision to drastically downscale a rebuild promised five years ago.
The primary school, with its cohort of about 300 students, received approval for a rebuild in 2019 which included eight new classrooms, an administration area and a multi-purpose sports court.
Oldclassrooms and the school’s court were removed or demolished last year, temporary classrooms were brought on site and retaining walls and concrete foundations were put in place this year.
The regional council soon changed the categorisation back to category one, meaning the rebuild could resume unhindered, as the school was mostly unaffected by flooding and was not residential.
Despite this, Eskdale School chairman Glenn Bond said the ministry informed the board verbally at the end of June that the plans had changed and ordered a stop to all work.
“It became apparent that they had not only made a decision around cancelling the build as planned and funded, but they had gone so far as to talk to architects about an alternative that was only two new classrooms and potentially putting back in a netball court we had demolished last year on the same space, which just beggars belief,” Bond said.
Jocelyn Mikaere, MoE hautū (deputy secretary) for Te Tai Whenua (Central), said MoE was committed to regularly meeting with the school board as the project progresses to make sure they are kept up to date.
“This reduced scope enables a responsible approach to investment while also making sure there is enough capacity to provide for the current roll,” Mikare said.
“The older classrooms have been removed and replaced with temporary classrooms so the children who are attending the school have a settled and safe learning environment to enjoy.”
She said there was uncertainty around the long-term effects of Cyclone Gabrielle on the community and the school’s network.
“We understand that the school and region have been through a very challenging time, and it will take a while before the fuller impacts are determined,” she said.
Buildings have been demolished and the groundwork has already been laid for the original plans at Eskdale School. Photo / Paul Taylor
Eskdale School principal Tristan Cheer said MoE’s concerns were unfounded as they had a relatively stable roll of students after the cyclone and good prospects for future growth.
“They keep talking about an uncertainty around the roll and all that.
“The fact is if they talked to us about the roll we could have shared with them the fact that we know how many kids are going to continue coming to our school,” Cheer said.
“Come the end of October this year we will have 308 students at school, which is the exact same number of students when the project was approved.”
MoE had spent $4.8 million on the project to date, but declined to publicise the total project budget as it was “commercially sensitive”, he said.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all to us that you would sacrifice the resources already spent to date and now spend money on new designs in order to give us an inadequate alternative that will leave us compromised in the meantime with temporary classrooms that are dark and too compact,” Bond said.
Bond questioned why MoE had “targeted” the school for “budget cuts”.
“This rebuild project has been a beacon of hope since the cyclone and, despite the crammed and unsatisfactory teaching spaces for students and staff, the kids and the community have been excited about the future,” Bond said in his statement.
“We are now trapped in a construction zone, with children poked into spaces that were intended to be temporary and limited outdoor areas for play because of the work in progress.”
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz
