New classrooms arrive on site at water-damaged Tauhara College

Tauhara College principal Ben Hancock outside one of the college's new modular classrooms. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

Tauhara College is receiving 13 new classrooms, five administration spaces and three ablution blocks, along with landscaping, decking and access ramps, all in time for the 2021 school year.

The new rooms are required after some of the school's classrooms in its 40-year-old prefabs were rendered unusable after a major rainstorm dumped more than 1mm a minute of rain on the school on Wednesday, November 25. The damage was so bad that classrooms were flooded and the school had to be shut for the rest of the year.

The Ministry of Education brought in an emergency response team and has also had building experts and engineers assessing the school to determine the way forward. Some of the classrooms have been deemed structurally unsafe.

In the meantime though, Tauhara College will be open at the start of the 2021 school year, its board announced two weeks ago.

New modular classrooms began arriving at the school last week and are being stored on the school field until they are ready to be moved into position.

They will be arranged in a semi-circle called "The Village" at one end of the school campus, between the tennis courts and a school block. The Village will make up the bulk of the teaching space for the junior students, with the seniors using the new classrooms when the juniors are doing options, and in other spaces in the school the remainder of the time.

Mr Hancock shows Ministry of Education director of education Bay of Plenty/Waiariki Ezra Schuster (left) and education manager Bay of Plenty/Waiariki Merle Ramsay the site of The Village.

Principal Ben Hancock says space on the school campus is at a premium and it's not as simple as pulling down damaged buildings and putting up new ones because there is not enough time to do so before the school year starts.

He says it is unfortunate a row of trees had to be felled to make way for The Village but there was simply no other suitable space to put the new classrooms.

What is not yet known is the longer-term plan for the school's buildings. Assessments from builders and engineers were being compiled into a report, which was expected to be sent to the ministry this week and which was expected to recommend repair or replacement for the damaged buildings. The worst-affected blocks are A and B blocks and everything in both blocks is having to be moved out.

"Once the plan is confirmed about what the curriculum space looks like we will share that," Mr Hancock said.

Tauhara College's new modular classrooms which are being stored on the school field and will be moved into position before the school year starts. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

It has been a busy three weeks for Mr Hancock and the college's staff, and last Friday he showed a group of three Ministry of Education staff from the ministry's Bay of Plenty office the new classrooms and discussed the plans for the way ahead.

Director of education Bay of Plenty/Waiariki, Ezra Schuster, said the priority at the moment was to support Mr Hancock and the school so that it can reopen ready for learning at the beginning of the new school year.

"The immediate thing is what we do for the start of 2021."

Mr Schuster acknowledged the college had "some pressing infrastructure issues".

"The college is a high priority and we've indicated our commitment to work with them to address their complex property needs."

Mr Hancock said although it had been a busy and stressful time, it was also an exciting one with things moving at pace.

'It's important that we get this place [The Village] up and running. It's warm and dry, it's somewhere where the students can get educated."

He said he wanted to especially thank the Ministry of Education which had acted quickly to support the school and also Taupō District Council, which he said had been "amazing', going above and beyond to process the necessary building permissions quickly to allow The Village to proceed.

Boxes stacked in Tauhara College's front office area. Everything is being moved out of the college's water-damaged A block until it can be repaired or replaced. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

He said that at the time of the "water bomb", the college had been in ongoing discussions with the ministry around the property issues and the ministry had been going to find some money for the rebuilding project. However, before the rainstorm the timeline had been expected to be three to six years.

Mr Hancock added that if Covid-19 had anything done for the education sector, it was to prepare schools well for the rate of change they had needed to keep up with over this year.

"This hasn't been as stressful as it would have been if we hadn't had Covid."

Mr Hancock said the change also offered opportunities for the school to look at doing some things differently.

"They are future-focused learning things which are really positive for the school, developments in our curriculum space and everybody is pretty excited by that."

Tauhara College is the smaller of Taupō's two colleges and had a roll of 645 students in July this year.