Netherby School is set to get two new classrooms, at a cost of about $600,000 each, and principal Phil Wheeler could not be happier.
He has been pushing for more teaching space for eight years.
‘‘We were unsuccessful in getting extra classroom space when we surpassed our maximum roll in 2016-2017, which led to reconfiguring the school to increase our capacity by another 24 children,’’ he said.
The new classrooms meant the school could better serve its pupils and cater for all children into the future without sacrificing other important spaces, such as libraries, resource rooms and places for teachers to test and work on release days, he said.
‘‘It will also increase the capacity of the school to around 220ish and future proof it for any other small or moderate roll increases.’’
Education minister Erica Stanford announced on Friday the government had found $100 million in savings to reinvest into building 82 more classrooms nationwide and a new school.
Halving build costs had freed up the funding, which was being reinvested into rapidly growing areas.
Wheeler said he was told on Friday, moments before it was made public.
‘‘It was really hard to keep the secret from staff until 9.15am when I announced the much awaited news over the schoolwide speaker for all children and staff to hear at the same time,’’ he said.
‘‘Staff jumped for joy, and I am sure a few shed a tear too.
‘‘We have sacrificed a library twice and board room and resource rooms to house children in satisfactory teaching spaces with the right light, space and facilities. So, although lacking space, our children have always been served as the main priority regardless.’’
Wheeler said the current roll at Netherby was 181.
‘‘We are still a small school, but our maximum occupancy was originally only 144 back when the school typically had between 120 – 150 children.
‘‘We increased capacity to 168 after reconfiguration. I have already been developing new plans to knock some internal walls out of a board room to increase space and teaching capacity from currently 13 to 28, thinking we would not get more classroom space anytime soon.
‘‘The news…was really quite unexpected, but most welcomed.’’
Among the other schools to benefit, Cashmere High School in Christchurch and Papatoetoe High School in Auckland were two of the biggest winners with 14 and 12 new classrooms respectively. The new school will be a primary and intermediate in Poke ¯no, Waikato.
The minister said the investment added to $713 million for school buildings from this year’s Budget, which includes $300m for repairs and upgrades, $255m for internal and external improvements over five years, and $58m for operating maintenance work.
