An update from BOT Chair Craig Palmer

Kia ora,

We are overdue in providing the school community an update on the new build project and we apologise for this. The Board and staff have been working hard to drive this forward but it is a complex process at the moment. At this stage, we have a design for the non-teaching space (including school administration and other offices) which is planned to be located where Tawa and Kowhai are currently positioned. Furthermore, we have plans to convert the current admin/Rimu space into two separate classrooms. We have conducted a rigorous tender process to identify a preferred contractor to complete the work and have been actively engaged with our property advisors looking to ensure we get the maximum benefit from our budget.

However, our plans have been significantly impacted by the rapid cost increases and demand pressures that the New Zealand building/construction industry has experienced (in terms of cost increases and people availability). In summary, the costs for the building have increased in the order of 25% from over a year ago. We are currently in discussions with MoE to understand whether there is additional funding available due to the significant cost increases or whether we have to rescope the design of the build. I appreciate this is frustrating for you all (as it is for us) and we would like to provide the community with concrete plans as soon as we can, providing outlines of what the school will look like in the future and the transition plan as we move from the current school layout to the future one.

Nga mihi,

Craig Palmer

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