$200m budget for Bay school building projects under construction

Taumata School principal Gen Fuller sitting amongst students in the new teaching block. Photo / Mead Norton

"A genuine sense of relief".

That's how Taumata School principal Gen Fuller felt when more than 200 students started learning in a newly built teaching block at the start of this term.

The school is one of many in the Bay of Plenty-Waiariki region that has Ministry of Education-led building projects under way at the moment - with a total budget of $200 million.

Ministry of Education data supplied to the Bay of Plenty Times under the Official Information Act shows construction for the new teaching block at the school had an initial forecast completion date of quarter four of the 2021/22 financial year.

But the end date had been pushed out to quarter one of 2022/23.

It comes as the Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president shared concerns about the delivery of property projects.

Principal Gen Fuller outside the new teaching block. Photo / Mead Norton

The OIA also reveals the budget for all Ministry-led projects under construction in the Bay of Plenty-Waiariki education region is around $200m, with the total spend standing at roughly $80m.

Taumata School principal Gen Fuller said the new teaching block was internally complete, with 211 senior students moving into the learning spaces on the first day of Term 3.

Fuller said there was a "genuine sense of relief" to have spaces that supported "desired learning pedagogy" and room for students to spread out.

She said the new teaching block had made a "big difference" to student wellbeing.

"The fact that there is space to enact learning - particularly for emerging adolescents," she said.

"We are better able to deepen the learning experience, particularly in regards to project-based learning - the spaces are purposefully designed to support active, messy, collaborative, authentic learning."

Work on the exterior of the new buildings and landscaping continued on-site, and it still needed to get sign-off.

It was expected these external works would be completed by mid-term.

She said "extraordinary growth" since the school opened in February 2019 meant some classes were in the hall, library and administration and staff room areas.

Stage 1 of the school was built for 390 pupils, but in 2020, Stage 2 of the project was expedited due to the "rapid" growth in the area.

The school's current roll stood at 595 and would grow to 619 by mid-term, she said.

Fuller said a review of the master plan and negotiation of the second build stage resulted in early design delays for Stage 2 of the project.

Covid-19 had impacted "on-site readiness" and access to construction staff, she said.

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"As a school, we have worked hard to mitigate the impact on teaching and learning - however, the underlying impact is that students have been accommodated in spaces not designed for teaching and learning," she said.

"[An] added impact has been the ability of our staff to come together in a common place due to the staffroom being utilised as a teaching and learning space," she said.

Meanwhile, Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president Suzanne Billington said the association was concerned about the delivery of property projects.

Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president Suzanne Billington. Photo / George Novak

It had been "proactive" in trying to alleviate this issue, with a working group meeting regularly with the Ministry of Education.

"This is very much in its beginning stages, however, it is being seen as a trial by the MOE that allows for current, credible, principal experience to be used with MOE staff to support overcoming these issues and building an improved and more transparent property system."

Ministry of Education head of property Sam Fowler said it was working with the principals association to support the organisation in "delivering effectively for the region's schools".

In the OIA, the Ministry said changes to the completion date could be due to a "range of issues", including the impact of Covid-19 with supply shortages and contractor resourcing issues, or "project-specific delivery complexities".

In some instances, additional or amended stages changed the forecast completion date.

It was unable to provide the budgets broken down by school, saying these amounts were "commercially sensitive" by nature.

It said the 'initial forecast construction end' was the completion date initially anticipated when construction started.