Malcolm Dixon
Recently Hawke's Bay Today reported the Education Minister had announced a $220 million contract for new schools north of the Bombay Hills.
This jolted my memory and I started wondering "what has happened to the extra classrooms for Havelock North"?
It certainly wasn't a much-needed new primary school that was nothing more than a proposed temporary fix for the major problem of severe overcrowding in our local schools.
Back on June 2, 2016 the Minister of Education Hekia Parata announced that $4 million was going to be spent on eight new classrooms for Havelock North.
This was to ease the pressure on the three overcrowded schools that were using school halls and library spaces to accommodate pupils. Two new classrooms for Lucknow, four for Havelock North and two for Te Mata.
These were going to be re-locatable modern learning environments that were going to be constructed outside of Hawke's Bay and delivered on site.
It is now nearly four terms (10 months) later and there is absolutely no sign of anything happening. Unbelievable, in term one two classes of children at Havelock North Primary are being taught in the school hall. Once again and more importantly the students and their education plus their teachers are being short-changed.
In September 2016 the Minister announced that they were abandoning the Arataki Motor Camp for any form of education. The TKK Takitimu new facility is now going to be built in Hastings.
It is now mid-April and seven months later the Kura is still waiting to find out where their new educational facility is going to be built. I understand that they have now been waiting more than 10 years for a new school and recently a prefab was dropped on an already overcrowded site to relieve some pressure. Absolutely not good enough.
So what is the latest information uncovered by the School for Havelock North team?
In just three weeks time, on May 7, the designation of the Arataki site for education purposes expires. This means that the land that is still owned by the Ministry of Education, and on their disposal list reverts to residential status.
While it's understood that the MOE believes the date should be September 12, 2020 which is seven years after it was registered under the District plan, May 7, 2010 is the date that the designation for education purpose was made by the HDC Hearings committee and legal opinion believes that this is the correct date to work from for the seven-year expiry date.
From here what needs to happen:
At a recent street meeting called under urgency by the School for Havelock North team members, John Nobilo and Anna Lorck were given an unanimous mandate from the many residents who attended to:
1. Get an extension to stop the land losing its educational status. The rules say this must be done within three months of it lapsing.
2. That there is full consultation with the local community before any disposal process by the MOE happens and they are made fully aware of what the site maybe used for.
The reasons are clear:
The primary school rolls in Havelock North and Hastings are still growing and many schools are already bursting at the seams.
There are plans for all the following areas to become residential: Brookvale, Romanes Drive and the Iona Triangle in Havelock North. It is expected than in less than five years they will all be in housing.
In Hastings Lyndhurst No 2 development will be completed and Howard St will be developed. When one looks at these developments and their closest schools Te Mata, Havelock North Primary, Parkvale and Frimley which are all already way over capacity and children are continually being taught in makeshift classrooms like school halls and libraries.
Hastings and Havelock North deserve better than what the Minister of Education is currently dishing out. It is clear that the education crisis is spreading and getting worse.
We all need to become far more proactive and demand that Havelock North and Hastings gets what they deserve, and 2017 is the right time to do it.
Our team has met and as a first step we will be taking action and demanding an immediate halt to any pending loss of education status on the Arataki land until MOE have purchased another site. Havelock North needs a new school now and Arataki is currently the only additional land the Ministry of Education owns in Havelock North.
We ask that all concerned residents support us by expressing their concerns through the media about the overcrowded local schools. It is not the fault of the schools, it is the cards that they have been dealt by the Minister.
The greater the pressure the more likelihood of getting a positive result.
Malcolm Dixon is a Hastings District councillor and the spokesman for lobby group, New School for Havelock North.