Jo Raphael: More focus needed on school upgrades

Funding has finally been approved for a Rotorua school to get its first proper upgrade since it opened in 1956. Photo / File

OPINION

The squeaky wheel gets the grease – when someone complains about a problem long enough and loud enough, something is done about it.

That's how Lynmore School principal Lorraine Taylor describes lobbying the Government for upgrades to the school.

Rotorua Lakes Council has approved Lynmore School's $3.5 million six-classroom block - after eight years of lobbying the Government.

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"This isn't something we've been given overnight," she says.

"What we had, like a lot of New Zealand schools, were lots of single-cell old prefabs that were uninsulated, full of asbestos, cold and had black mould on the walls."

In January last year, education minister Chris Hipkins announced a $400 million school infrastructure upgrade programme.

A quick google search reveals there are about 2500 schools in the country.

Not all will be in such situations as Lynmore, but I would bet a fair few of them are which, to be fair to the Ministry of Education, is a lot to juggle.

Hipkins said at the time about 2000 schools would get up to $400,000 each for building upgrades.

But, even so, how has it taken eight years of nagging for Lynmore to finally get its first proper upgrade since it opened in 1956?

Future-proofing needs to happen for many of the country's schools, and Pāpāmoa's newest school seems to be doing that.

Suzanne Aubert Catholic School opened this month, and although its foundation pupils number around 80, the school has planned for likely extreme roll growth.

Foundation deputy principal Shelley McKay says the school will be discerning when choosing its pupils – preferring about 90 per cent of the roll to have a "strong Catholic connection".

"In addition to this we are developing partnerships with our parish, iwi and local early childhood education providers to predict roll growth."

The school plans future stages of building will reach a capacity of 250 pupils by 2024.

This is great news for Pāpāmoa and as Golden Sands School principal Melanie Taylor says "the more the merrier".

But although the focus is on building new schools to keep up with population growth and migration, which is a good thing, more attention needs to be on upgrading and expanding our existing schools.

It shouldn't take eight years of squeaking.