Feasibility study for Gisborne Boys’ High School hostel seeks public input

A Gisborne Herald photo from July 2013 of the closing of The Rectory Co-Educational Hostel. More than 40 Gisborne Boys’ and Girls’ High students boarded there that year. A feasibility study into the development of a new boarding facility is being done.

Gisborne Boys’ High School’s board of trustees is investigating the feasibility of re-establishing a boarding hostel for the school and wants community input.

“We value the input and support of our community in order to make this happen,” GBHS principal Tom Cairns said.

“Recent weather events in Te Tairawhiti have demonstrated the absolute need for our region to have a self-sufficient boarding facility, sooner rather than later.”

The former Rectory Hostel located next to the fields across the road from GBHS provided accommodation for students attending Gisborne Boys’ and Girls’ High schools. It closed in 2013.

The Rectory was originally built in 1911 for Gisborne Boys’ High students.

Accommodation facility Ayton House opened in Stanley Rd in 1916 for Gisborne Girls’ High students.

The Rectory was a co-educational facility from 1984 and was run by Gisborne Hostel Trust from 1989.

“We are aware that there are a significant number of boys who leave the region to board whose whānau would perhaps otherwise choose for them to stay in the district if a boarding facility was available at Gisborne Boys’ High School,” Cairns said.

“Instead they are attending boys’ schools in other regions.”

GBHS board of trustees engaged Napier Boys’ High former principal Ross Brown to conduct the feasibility study.

The study included a survey that was circulated among Tairawhiti rural communities.

The GBHS board subcommittee has received a phase one report and is reviewing this data.

The survey has identified a groundswell of interest as the feasibility process continues. It also outlines the funding required to build and operate the hostel.

Cairns said while they were confident they had touched base with a good percentage of those who may consider boarding, they were keen to contact those who had missed the initial survey. They did not want anyone left out of the consultation process.

“We are ambitious about supporting the needs of our region. The views of the public and community support in this project are very important to us, but currently the missing piece of the pie is the data around the numbers required to make a hostel a viable economic option.

“This number must be a real number, not just one based on perceived need. We need to know who will actually come if we are able to make this happen.”

The hostel feasibility study had a further two parts to it before a decision was made, he said.

“We don’t want to leave any stone unturned here.”

Gisborne Boys’ High School has a tent at the Poverty Bay A & P Show on Friday and Saturday.

Cairns and senior staff will be available to discuss the possibility of a hostel and any other school matter.

A link to the hostel survey is on the school’s web page www.gisboyshigh.net or you can email the school at principal@gisboyshigh.net for the link.