Updated: MAC principal Nicola Jacobsen advised parents this evening that the college would be open tomorrow (Friday February 9) with House Day going ahead as planned.

Earlier:

Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) principal Nicola Jacobsen made the decision to close the college this afternoon (Thursday February 8) after a broken water main left the school without water.

Parents were notified by email at 2pm that the water main had broken on nearby Beaumont Street. 

“The QLDC [Queenstown Lakes District Council], Veloa and the Fire Brigade are working to resolve the issue, however, we are likely to be without water for the rest of the day,” the school said in an email to parents.

Staff told parents to email any special instructions their child would need to know about where to go and how to get there: “For example, leave with sibling, go to grandma's, go to Dad's work, etc.”

Bus students were supervised by staff until their buses arrived to take them home.

The school said the issue was likely to be resolved today.

Road works have closed one lane of Plantation Road directly outside the school since the term began, but there was no word whether the broken water main was related. 

That work comprises the completion of a three-metre-wide pathway beside MAC through to Wānaka Primary School and new raised speed tables along Plantation Road as part of QLDC’s ‘Schools to pool’ active travel route project.

PHOTO: Wānaka App