Flaxmere Primary School principal Robyn Isaacson is concerned about a lack of communication from the Ministry of Education over its budget review of classroom replacement projects. Photo / Paul Taylor
Three schools in Flaxmere have been stuck in “limbo” for months after projects to replace almost-50-year-old classrooms at the end of their lifespans were paused nearly two years into the planning process while a Government budget review takes place.
The Ministry of Education is reviewing 352 projects in 305 schools and kura in pre-construction nationwide to identify opportunities to achieve better value for money.
Of those, 18 projects are in Hawke’s Bay including three Flaxmere primary schools — Irongate School, Te Whai Hiringa Peterhead and Flaxmere Primary School.
All three were in the planning stages for redevelopment to replace their portable modular classrooms (PMCs).
Education Ministry head of property Sam Fowler said it was working with 86 schools in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Tararua to remediate, replace or dispose of all remaining PMCs over the next 10 years.
“Portable modular classrooms or PMCs were constructed during the 1960s and 70s around Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Tararua to address roll growth pressures at the time. Despite being only intended to last 15-20 years, many are still in use today,” Fowler said.
“The number of PMCs at each school varies from one or two stand-alone classrooms through to schools constructed almost entirely from PMC buildings.”
Irongate School principal Maurice Rehu said 14 classrooms were going to be replaced at Irongate and his school was working with Te Whai Hiringa Peterhead and Flaxmere Primary School through the process.
“We were working together as three schools because it was a prime opportunity. All three schools are in Flaxmere and if we are doing something in Flaxmere, let’s do it as a community,” Rehu said.
He said his school was notified in 2022 that it would be in the next tranche of PMC replacements.
“We’ve had infrastructure testing, drilling, all sorts, and then last year we had our architects assigned, we started with our cultural narratives,” he said.
“We were trucking along quite nicely last year, getting ready for the concept designs and I think it was December last year that we had a visit from the ministry to say that with the new Government’s 100-day plan, all new builds would be put on pause and reviewed as the budget was being prepared for.”
He was concerned the review would leave the budget much smaller than what was allocated to the classroom rebuilds when the schools were already far into the process.
“Generally, what that means from experience is there are going to be budget cuts and anything that you had initially planned is no longer yours.”
Te Hiringa Whai tumuaki (principal) Tineka Tuala-Fata said there were about 11 50-year-old PMC learning spaces that were going to be replaced at her school, again half their buildings.
She said an old pipe had burst in one of the PMC classrooms during the last school holiday, creating a mess in several classrooms.
“It wasn’t a huge burst, so no one could see it, and it wasn’t until one of our teachers went to the classroom a couple of weeks before school returned, opened up the door and out came a flood. That flooded five classrooms ankle deep,” Tuala-Fata said.
“Everything is leaking, all the roofs are no good. Every time we get an electrician to look at something, they are like ‘these electrics are really ancient’; so much so that you’ve got to go find powerboards halfway around the school and things like that.”
She said the review hold-up had affected everything else around it, including her school’s 10-year maintenance plan because they weren’t sure of the scope of the rebuild until it was complete, and didn’t want to invest their limited budget in buildings that would be torn down.
“We are stuck here unable to make plans or do anything. It is literally limbo and meanwhile, you have everything leaking, pipes leaking, old carpets, and you are sitting there trying to make judgment calls like do I get this patched up?” she said.
“As principal, it is my responsibility to ensure that money is used as wisely as possible.”
She said it should be every government’s priority to ensure school buildings were safe for children.
Flaxmere Primary was looking at having 12 PMCs replaced, or half its school buildings.
Tumuaki Robyn Isaacson said she was concerned with the lack of communication from the Ministry of Education because her school had last heard from the Government about the beginning of the year.
“We did start off with quite a big project with quite a big lead into it with architects and everything else, and quite a lot of time dedicated on the principles and planning part,” she said.
“Then all of a sudden it just stopped.”
Fowler said it was expected decisions for most schools will be communicated from the end of June.
“With such high demand for investment in school property across the country, the more cost efficiencies we can achieve on individual projects, the more we can deliver across the country to the benefit of all ākonga (students),” Fowler said.
“New funding has been provided through Budget 2024 and we are working through how this funding is allocated to prioritised property projects.”
Budget 2024 included $1.48 billion to build new schools and classrooms and to upgrade existing ones.
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features with a focus on the environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz