MURITAI SCHOOL BOARD OF TRUSTEES: August 2012

Muritai School Board of Trustees

Newsletter – 20 August 2012

Library Project

As a school community, we have been raising money for some years for the development of a new school library. Progress has not been as smooth, or as quick, as we would have liked largely as a result of inconsistent Ministry of Education (MOE) policy and inadequate funding. The Board considers it timely to update you on the current position on the library project, particularly given the further earthquake strengthening works that are required.

When the current Board came on board (excuse the pun) in 2010 progress was well under way for the extensive re-development of the existing library as a joint project with the MOE. A design had been settled upon and the school community, through two Eastbourne Carnivals, had already raised around $100,000 towards the project.

Unfortunately MoE budget cuts meant that the money intended for the project and other necessary capital works to the school was reduced by 20% in 2010 and it became impossible to proceed as planned. Not only was Muritai allocated $150,000 less (at a time of rapidly increasing costs) but the MoE also directed the Board to spend funds earmarked for the Library on other infrastructure projects such as putting hot water in the toilets.

At Muritai, our library is so much more than a place to store a few books. Syndicates have their assemblies there, students meet to undertake research in small and class groups, it is a meeting venue for parents, teachers and visiting schools, it is a speech presentation theatre, an activity room for buddy classes, a maths teaching area and even a dressing room at production time. It is, in reality, a learning hub, accessed by and accessible to the whole school and wider community.

Accordingly, over the last couple of years the Board has undertaken an extensive process of researching library spaces around the region, consulting with architects and building professionals and negotiating (at length) with the MoE in relation to funding. This culminated in instructing Mackenzie Higham architects in 2011 to design a new building in accordance with specific criteria. You can view the designs by clicking here.

Our roll has grown significantly over the last couple of years and we have accordingly been allocated additional funding by the Ministry to build another classroom. For aesthetic, convenience and cost reasons the best solution has been to construct a new library and convert the existing library back into a teaching space. The project also involves the renovation of the current librarian space into a walkway, cloak bay and improved egress at the south end of the building and the improvement of access into the building with a substantial deck off the downstairs classrooms.

We were at the point of preparing detailed design drawings when the project was put on hold pending the results of an earthquake readiness survey. As you are aware the results of the report were unsatisfactory requiring emergency works over the July holidays and further works to be undertaken over Christmas. Disappointingly the MoE has now advised us that the cost of these strengthening works must be met at first instance out of funds they had previously agreed could be spent on the library. This unfortunately means that an already tight budget has been further squeezed by the removal of a further $100,000.

The Board is now advised that we will also be expected to contribute around $50,000 from our 5 year property funding to the government's much-publicized ultra fast broadband to schools scheme in order to bring the connection to the school.

The net result is that there is now no possibility of any contribution towards the library/classroom project from normal Ministry capital funding. All funds will come from roll growth funding and Carnival fundraising and, whilst the project is still to be finally costed, we expect to be approximately $100,000 short.

We, of course, have another Carnival this year however the Board has resolved to use funds raised from this carnival predominantly to update the technology available to the students to improve our ratio of technology access to the national average of 1:5 as we consider this a more pressing need.

We are hopeful that by making some minor design adjustments, and through the tender process, we can reduce the shortfall. It does however seem inevitable that we will need to raise additional funds. Once it is clear how much is involved we will discuss funding strategies and we would expect to do this early in 2013.

We are disappointed at the setbacks particularly in light of the enormous fundraising effort put in by the school community at successive carnivals. The Board remains committed to developing a modern and functional learning hub for our school community and are excited by the design we have settled upon. Assuming we are able to raise the necessary shortfall we hope to be in a position to commence building in 2013 and establish a facility we can all be proud of.

We will update you as the project progresses and as always if you have any queries or comments please do not hesitate to contact one of the Board members whose details are on the Muritai website.

Stuart Stock stu.stock@mac.com Chairperson

Andrew Bird bird@muritai.school.nz Principal
Melissa Coton coton@muritai.school.nz Staff rep
Olivia Paterson oliviapaterson@xtra.co.nz
Craig Griffiths caltgriffiths@xtra.co.nz
Julie Parker wattersparker@yahoo.com
David Griffiths wgtngriffs@xtra.co.nz
Carolyn Patchett cpatchett@yahoo.com

Muritai School Board of Trustees

Newsletter – August 2012

Earthquake Strengthening Update

As mentioned in our June newsletter, following unsatisfactory results of the structural report commissioned by the Board, emergency strengthening works were undertaken to the main two-story block over the July holidays. We were fortunate that they were able to be fully completed without any disruption to the classes. We are pleased to report that we have now received further advice from the independent engineers confirming that as a result of the works completed the building is no longer considered earthquake prone. We have also had formal confirmation from the Ministry of Education that we have satisfied all statutory requirements regarding the earthquake status of the building.

We have achieved this technical compliance as the building now has a capacity greater than 33% of the seismic strength required for a new building designed to current codes. It is comforting that the building is in a more stable seismic condition than it was prior to completing these works. However, the Board remains of the opinion that it should be brought up to as near as practicable to 100% of National Building Standard as soon as reasonably possible. Accordingly engineers are preparing a detailed design plan in order to achieve this. Our Property Committee will work with the engineers and the Ministry to formulate a design which is as cost effective as possible and can be achieved with the minimum possible disruption. At this stage we expect the works will be tendered at the beginning of term 4 and completed over the Christmas holidays. We will of course update you as soon as we have more details in this regard.

Unfortunately the Ministry has no separate budget for earthquake strengthening works and the cost of the alterations will come out of the funds allocated to the school every 5 years for upgrading and maintaining our buildings (5YA). As we are one of the first schools to reach this point, having taken the initiative with respect to strengthening, the Ministry has not yet made a decision on how it will affect future funding. Our expectation is that funds spent in excess of our current entitlement will be deducted from our next allocation due in 2015.

Our current 5YA earmarked the $450,OOO entitlement for classroom renovations, toilet upgrades and a new library, the latter being supplemented by additional funds received from the Ministry for a new classroom as a result of our increased roll and money raised by the community over three successive Eastbourne Carnivals. We have completed the classroom and toilet renovations however the Ministry will now required us to divert 5YA money earmarked for the library towards the earthquake strengthening.

This is disappointing as it means for a second time the Ministry of Education has changed our funding allocation with respect to the library mid-project (our initial design had to be abandoned when our 2010 5YA grant was reduced by $150,000). We are hopeful that our revised design will be able to be progressed with some modifications and potentially some alternative sources of funding. We are in the process of finalising some details in this regard and hope to bring you a progress update shortly.

We are disappointed at the setback but pleased we have been able to quickly address the urgent safety issues faced and ensure our children are educated in the safest possible environment. If you have any queries or would like to discuss this or any other matter concerning governance of the school please do not hesitate to contact one of the board members whose details are on the Muritai School website.

regards

Muritai School Board of Trustees

If you have any comments or queries or would like to discuss anything further please do not hesitate to contact any of the Board members. Our contact details are as follows:-

Stuart Stock stu.stock@mac.com Chairperson