The online survey closes at 9 am on Friday 13 August

Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

On Friday you received a Hero notification regarding a survey the Board has developed to gather feedback from our school community about a proposed redevelopment to part of the School Road boundary. Please see more details below. Supporting documentation is also attached to this article. 

A reminder that the survey closes at 9am on Friday 13 August. 

As many of you will be aware, the school is completing several property projects as part of a $400,000 cash injection from the Ministry of Education School Investment Programme (SIP). This capital injection is designed to maintain and improve the school grounds, buildings and infrastructure.

The largest of the SIP projects approved by the Ministry is the construction of an all-weather astroturf court to be positioned between the Stadium/Hall and School Road. This will increase the playing area for our students and provide a surface that can be used for sport and physical education throughout the year.

Creating this new playing surface will require the removal of oak trees on the School Road boundary. The initial advice was that only four trees would need to be removed, and the Board was comfortable making this decision.

However, the independent arborist report the Board commissioned as part of its due diligence revealed that (i) removing those four trees would affect the remaining trees, and (ii) that the trees are not thriving and are nearing the end of their lifespan with an estimated 15-25+ years left.

This means that the construction of the all-weather astroturf court on School Road will likely require the removal of ten of the oaks in the stand on School Road. The Board is not comfortable continuing with the project without consulting our school community. To that end, we have created a survey to gather feedback from our school community about the following options:

1. Not proceeding with the astroturf project and diverting the funding to other property projects around the school, or
2. Proceeding with the astroturf project, including the removal of 10 of the 11 oak trees on School Road and incorporating a new landscaped area featuring native trees.

To help weigh up the options, the Board has also commissioned a report from Boffa Miskell that outlines the short and long term impacts of both options along with visuals of what the options could look like.

The Board has determined that a vote of at least 75% in favour of continuing with the astroturf court will be required for the project to go ahead. Parents, staff, close neighbours and our Year 5-8 student communities will be surveyed (in a format appropriate for them). We respectfully request that you do not share this link with anyone outside of these communities.

For this survey to accurately reflect the views of our school community, a minimum participation threshold has been set at a 40% adult response rate. Should this threshold not be met, a final decision will be made by the Board of Trustees.

To help our school community make the most informed decision possible, we have attached both the arborist report and the full impact report from Boffa Miskell. We ask that you read both reports carefully before completing the survey.

This is an important decision for our school community and we encourage you to participate in the feedback process. Should you have any specific questions, please contact Principal Stuart Cameron via the Office in the first instance.

Please click here to complete the survey. Your responses will remain publicly anonymous. The survey will close at 9 am on Friday 13 August. 

Ngā mihi nui

Halswell School Board of Trustees