Morrinsville Intermediate to close for funeral of Mount Maunganui landslide hero Lisa Maclennan

Morrinsville Intermediate will close for the funeral of the Mount Maunganui landslide victim, former staff member Lisa Maclennan, hailed for her bravery in trying to alert campers to the looming danger.

The last-minute decision to shut the school for a day comes as the Ministry of Education initially said the intermediate could only do so providing it made up for the lost day of teaching at the end of the year.

Maclennan’s funeral, the final New Zealander of the six who died to be farewelled, will take place tomorrow.

As late as Sunday the school was preparing to stay open with staff and pupils to attend the funeral and classes to be held online.

However, the school’s presiding board of trustees’ member Mike Garrud this morning said the ministry had now allowed them to close without consequence after the school asked it to rethink its decision.

“The Ministry have now allowed us to close after we asked them to reconsider the circumstances.

“It was either just last night or early this morning the Ministry confirmed to us... and that’s without us having to stay open an extra day at the end of the year.”

Garrud said last week the school was given a choice by the Ministry of Education, to either close for the funeral and be required to open an extra day at the end of the year, or to stay open.

He said the school initially chose to stay open and requested parents, if possible, to “get students to learn from home via Google classroom and other online programmes”.

The school had a plan in place for learners where this was not possible.

“We were going to utilise other staff from nearby facilities to make up for the staff who chose to attend Lisa’s funeral,” said Garrud.

“We don’t work as closely with these other areas so it would have been harder to gauge numbers.”

Parents were notified of the changes by email from the school’s principal Jenny Clark.

Maclennan,50, who was also known in the school community as “Mrs. Mac”, was a tutor at the school’s literacy centre for the past seven years.

She has been recognised for her selflessness and heroism shown in the events in the hours before the disaster at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park.

It emerged soon after the tragedy that she had tried to warn campers of a looming danger, going around sites at 5am to alert and evacuate people.

In the days after her death the school wrote about her commitment to teaching and the gap she would leave.

“Her passion was boundless, and she was known for always going the extra mile...She made an indelible mark on everyone she worked with through her kindness, care and selflessness. She really is a hero in many many ways!”

The Ministry has yet to comment about the U-turn.

Funerals have taken place over the past week for other landslide victims including Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15.