Cash needed to plug gaps in school

Avondale deputy head Chris Stuart inspects the damage. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

When a teacher fell through rotten floorboards at his school, principal Rota Carrington decided it was time to act.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Helen Clark visited Avondale Intermediate School, which is in her Mt Albert electorate, to see the problems.

Concrete pillars at the school are cracked, there is mould on the leaky ceilings, windows have been nailed shut - and the woodwork is rotting.

Mr Carrington has won Ministry of Education approval to tear down 18 classrooms and rebuild. He is now trying to prise $3.5 million from the ministry for the work.

The decile-three school is another that complains of under-funding.

Helen Clark said it was likely the school would get extra money - but that did not mean other schools with dilapidated buildings could expect the same.

"Everyone needs more money; let's take that for granted," she said. "Sometimes special cases come up. This school has a unique history."

Avondale Intermediate was built as a hospital by US forces during World War II. It was converted to a school after the war and successive boards and principals have struggled to maintain the buildings.

Mr Carrington, who has been principal for five years, estimates it would cost twice the price of demolition and rebuilding to refurbish and maintain the ageing buildings.

"Five teachers had to race from a meeting last year when it started raining heavily to plug the gaps in their classroom ceilings and to make sure no work was underneath them," he said. "It has to be one of the worst [schools] in the country."

At nearby Fruitvale Primary in New Lynn, principal Noeline Goldie has written several pleas to Education Minister Trevor Mallard, who holds that the Government's operations grant is sufficient to run a school. But Mrs Goldie said her school was barely surviving. To meet this year's budget she had to axe a teacher aide position, cut the hours of other aides, halve the grounds assistant's hours, cut curriculum expenditure and put off computer development.

"The Government has done its absolute best," she said, "to kill job satisfaction for everyone committed to educating children."