KEY POINTS:
The leaky homes troubles that plagued Auckland's housing industry are also striking schools, and one is facing a potential multimillion-dollar repair bill.
Education Ministry officials yesterday said Mt Albert Grammar, Edendale School in Sandringham, Glenn Innes Primary and Shelly Park School in Howick had "weathertightness issues" and were being checked for leaky building syndrome.
And Education Minister Chris Carter said last night that Mt Albert Grammar could face a repair bill of "many millions of dollars", depending on how much work is needed to repair a 24-classroom block.
An investigation is being done to decide whether the building can be fixed or must be demolished and rebuilt.
A worst-case repair bill could be "bigger than their five-year building plan", which totalled "quite a few millions", Mr Carter said.
Mt Albert Grammar headmaster Dale Burden was yesterday reluctant to discuss the matter because it was going to court.
But he said the school was taking legal action over "a very significant problem" with the eight-year-old block.
"There's a whole range of problems," Mr Burden said.
"We were constantly repairing things that shouldn't need to be repaired."
Mr Carter said the cases of Mt Albert Grammar and Edendale would go to the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service.
The ministry is helping Mt Albert Grammar in its court action and is also understood to be leading the court case over Glen Innes's problems.
Education officials would not comment on the legal action, but said problems with buildings at Edendale Primary were still being determined.
The ministry has been involved with the Edendale case for about a year, but the school got some high-powered help from Prime Minister Helen Clark and Mr Carter, who each visited it last week.
"It was fortuitous she [Helen Clark] was in school for another reason, and I guess we have to capitalise on these moments," Edendale principal Rosemary Vivien said yesterday.
One of two Edendale buildings in need of work qualified as a "leaky building", Ms Viven said.
The building was a classroom block with an attached library, and in a "worst-case scenario" one "team" of classes - as many as 100 children - could need to be rehoused while the building was repaired.
The displaced students could be accommodated on the school grounds, although that would mean bringing in portable buildings or teaching in the school hall.
Ms Vivien said the school's faulty buildings had not had too great an effect on student activities, although two rooms in one block could not be used in heavy rain and remained unusable until they dried.
"It's not a good, healthy environment in which children should be sitting all day."
Glen Innes principal Lynell Martin said the school was taking legal action after its new hall, completed in 1999, started sinking into the ground.
Mrs Martin said the hall's floor slab was poured below ground level, and as a result the floor and parts of the walls were rotting and the hall could no longer be rented out - a useful source of extra income. It was being used only once a week for assembly.
A ministry spokesman said last night that investigations at the four schools had found "no immediate health and safety concerns".
The cost of repairs at all the schools would not be huge "in the context of the overall school property portfolio in Auckland", which is valued at about $3 billion, the ministry spokesman said.
A fifth school, Macleans College in Bucklands Beach, is also being investigated, but it is not yet known if it qualifies as having a leaky building.
