School squatters set to sign tenancy

College head Ruth Cargill and trust chairman Danny Liufalani, ready for classes. Picture / Dean Purcell

A group who have illegally occupied a vacant Otara school since the beginning of the year look set to finally sign a lease with the Education Ministry today.

The Lagofa'atasi Trust, representing a group of Otara churches and community groups, has turned the old Bairds Intermediate into what it calls the "Otara Global Village" for young people of all ethnicities.

A school for teenagers in the care of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), Felix Donnelly College, will start classes today in a part of the campus.

But the neighbouring Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) also wants the site and the Education Ministry's manager of network provision, Karl Hutton, says other Crown agencies and private education providers are interested.

The campus became vacant last year when the intermediate school was merged with Hillary College and Clydemore Primary School to form Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate. MIT has already taken over the Clydemore site.

Mr Hutton said the ministry discovered in the middle of this year that the Bairds site had been occupied.

"The good news is that they have been looking after the place really well, and in fact the occupation helped us vandalism-wise," he said.

"But it was also true that the buildings were not necessarily safe. Their warrants of fitness had expired."

Mr Hutton said the Lagofa'atasi Trust conceded that it was occupying the site illegally and had agreed to a month-by-month tenancy, so if the property was needed for a state school again, "we can serve notice and reoccupy".

Trust chairman Danny Liufalani, a Niuean mortgage adviser, said the site was being used by five church youth groups, including his own church, the Samoan Assembly of God. "Lagofa'atasi" means "all ethnic groups under one roof".

"We are looking at turning this place into an education programme for the local youth, mainly with the cultural education programme as well as mainstream education for Pacific Islanders here in South Auckland," he said.

"We are running normal mainstream English classes, local own-language classes and life skills for the kids. We are trying to get these kids into a situation where they can fit into a mainstream school."

Volunteer teachers are also running Niuean and Samoan preschools and what Mr Liufalani described as "sewing classes". When the Herald visited on Thursday, a small group of sewers said they were actually outworkers producing clothing for a commercial buyer.

Mr Liufalani also uses the premises to provide financial and budgeting advice.

Felix Donnelly College, a state school created in Tuakau in 1999 for teenagers in CYFS care, was welcomed on to the site with a powhiri on Wednesday. Principal Ruth Cargill said her students would gain from the link with the Lagofa'atasi Trust.

"These boys have not had good male role models," she said.

"I think that if people have an open mind to what is happening on this campus, it could be something that is more exciting than what is happening anywhere in the world - the integrating of education and the community and different cultures."

The 13 to 15 male students who will start at the campus all live in homes run by the Youth Horizons Trust. Spokesman Lee Schoushkoff said the college had agreed to have more specialist youth workers and the trust's own social workers on the new Bairds site.