KEY POINTS:
The future schooling of hundreds of North Shore teenagers is up in the air, with a land row likely to delay the opening of a new school.
The Ministry of Education said yesterday "significant opposition" to the development of a senior high school in Albany might mean the
school's opening is held up for a year.
But parents of pupils at feeder school Albany Junior High School told the Herald they were warned the new school might not be ready for students until 2011.
"Our kids are at the end of their third form [Year 9]. If they don't build this building, we are actually in no zone for a school," said one mother, whose family had moved from West Auckland to the North Shore so her children could go there.
Andy Bonner, who has children in Year 7 and 9 at the junior school, said families were let down after absolute assurances from officials that the senior school would be built on time.
"The Prime Minister [Helen Clark] spoke at the opening of the junior high and said, 'Yes, it will all be ready'," he said. "Now all of a sudden it's looking very, very dodgy ... I think it's disgusting."
The ministry may be forced to rent premises to create a makeshift school in the interim to take the students due to go to the senior high.
The new school was scheduled to open in 2009 with about 300 Year 11 students from the junior high. It was to introduce classes for Year 12 and Year 13 students in later years.
Ministry of Education northern regional manager Bruce Adin said the 2009 opening was still a goal but opposition to an application to redesignate the land meant it might not be reached.
"Arrangements are being made to provide alternative accommodation for the new school in 2009.
"The new school site is expected to be ready to accommodate 700 pupils from the beginning of the 2010 school year."
The North Shore City Council hearing for the application is set down for four days next month.
Mr Adin said the ministry was working with boards of trustees of the junior and senior schools to provide the temporary facilities and ensure students were not disadvantaged.
Albany Junior High principal Mike Jackson said the news was devastating for the community but he asked parents not to panic.
He said they should get more answers at a meeting at the end of the month .
"There are concerns that put the junior school at risk as well," said Mr Jackson.
"We have a fear that if there's not a clear path for our Year 11 students, our students may well leave at the end of Year 8.
"That's totally against the model that we and the ministry have worked so hard to develop."
The senior high school will be built on a 4ha site opposite Massey University Auckland campus.
It is not the first time the location of the new senior high school has hit the headlines.
An earlier suggestion to build it on land leased to Rosedale Pony Club was overturned after a public outcry.
