College repair work begins at last

Northland College principal Jim Luders is happy the building behind him will soon be gone. Photo / Debbie Beadle

Three years after the urgent need for a rebuild of Northland College was highlighted it will finally go ahead with temporary repair work starting tomorrow.

It comes a week after principal Jim Luders called the classrooms "the worst in New Zealand".

Yesterday, Mr Luders met with Associate Minister of Education Nikki Kaye to discuss the issues raised last week in the media about the poor state of the school buildings. "I have to say I was really impressed," Mr Luders said. "She wanted to hear from me what had gone wrong with the process."

The college rebuild had now been given priority, he said. Last Friday Ministry of Education acting head of the education infrastructure service Jerome Sheppard, who was also in the meeting with Ms Kaye, visited the school to assess the situation for himself. "His response was that he wanted someone up here," Mr Luders said.

Tomorrow builders and painters would start at the school for some urgent upgrades, even though it will likely be for a short period of time. "What they want to do is make it as clean and safe as possible," Mr Luders said. It included replacing walls with mould, fixing leaking ceiling in the girls' bathroom and necessary paint touch ups.

While the plans for the rebuild were yet to be finalised, Mr Luders said he was hoping for a ministerial announcement in the next month.

All going well some classrooms would be ready halfway through next year, with rebuild complete by 2017.

"It's a relief for our kids as they are going to get looked after," he said.

Last week Mr Luders, who was appointed in 2013, challenged any schools to show him worse classrooms than his. There was mould, asbestos, uneven floors, patches of missing carpet and ceiling tiles which had fallen off because of water damage.

A 2012 Education Review Office report found "unacceptable" working conditions had a detrimental effect on staff morale and student well-being. A commissioner was appointed not long after the report, which found the building situation to be "urgent".

Despite ERO's recommendation for "urgent" work on the classrooms, the school spent the last three years in limbo.