A Tauranga heritage consultant is challenging Otumoetai Primary School to save its 116-year-old classroom block from being shifted off the school site.
John Coster (pictured) has found Ministry of Education policy that states when a school has an historic heritage feature the ministry and the school's board of trustees are responsible for its care and upkeep.
He challenged the school's principal, Geoff Opie, and board of trustees chairwoman Jackie Webb in an email, saying: "You are bound by government policy and may need to reconsider the issue."
Mr Coster's email was part of an 11th-hour bid to save the historic classroom from being shifted off the site, which gives it significance.
Tenders to shift the building closed yesterday.
The ministry policy was driven by an overall policy that said the Government was committed to the promotion and protection of historic heritage. This policy required each department to identify places with heritage value and to establish processes, including the preparation of conservation and maintenance plans.
But Mr Opie said he had been told the school had followed due process by checking whether the old classroom block was registered as an historic building.
"The ministry is telling us that the building does not qualify under the legislation."
The Historic Places Trust had told the school that if it intended to demolish the building then the trust would have launched an investigation, but it had no problem with it being removed because it was not listed.
Mr Opie said he was not prepared to debate what was being said in the media by the group campaigning to retain the building on the school grounds.
A newsletter was to go out yesterday to parents setting out the board's decision and that the ministry had affirmed the board had acted by the book. "And that is where it stands."