By Simon Clarke | Posted: Saturday May 20, 2017
The Board in conjunction with the Ministry of Education are very pleased to announce a $6.7 million dollar investment into the school's property!
Over the last five years Kaikorai Primary School has been working closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure we at Kaikorai Primary can meet the property solutions that best serves the learning needs for current and future student generations.
We are very excited to announce that a major property works project consisting of $6.7 million dollars will begin immediately with initial planning, followed by construction in mid 2019.
The current main block, hall and Room 11 will be demolished and replaced with 8 new classrooms, library, administration and multipurpose space/hall. This is likely to be in the halls current position and will have better connection with the existing junior block while also creating more flat play space.
This space will be purpose built and will reflect the extensive research that our teachers have undertaken over the last five years. It will allow our teachers to teach and our children to learn in a space that encourages innovation, collaboration and one which is comfortable and conducive to learning.
The Board would like to acknowledge the work of many people who have enabled this project to become a reality including the former Board of Trustees especially the ex-Board Chairs, Ken Cochrane and Barb Long. We would like to acknowledge current Board member Simon Hornal, who has held the property portfolio for seven years along with Simon Clarke who has led the school in the development of this project.
Inevitably the Board has had to delay some aspects of maintenance while working though this project knowing that one of the solutions could be to demolish existing facilities. We are pleased that the Ministry has approved this project and now the community, staff and students will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape the future learning environments for generations to come. In the short term the Board will ensure windows in the main block are repaired and painted along with some carpet replacement but a full repaint/recarpet will not be completed due to its inevitable demolition.
We look forward to announcing further plans and designs as they come to hand.
Kind regards
Dougal McGowan and Simon Clarke
On behalf of the Kaikorai Primary School Board of Trustees