Hāwea residents appear ready to put up a fight to retain Hāwea Flat School in its current site, while also supporting the prospect of a second school at Lake Hāwea in response to growth projections.

About 50 Hāwea residents attended a community meeting on Monday evening (June 27) in response to a shock announcement by the Ministry of Education (MOE) that it planned to relocate the 140 year old school to Lake Hāwea within the next five to seven years.

The MOE informed the school board it was planning to relocate the school based on growth projections in the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) Spatial Plan which signalled that future growth and development will be concentrated around Hāwea’s lake and village, rather than rural areas.

Read more: Hāwea Flat School on the move?

“We know that we will have to expand schooling to meet future growth and want to ensure it will be in a place that provides the greatest level of access for the majority of families,” the MOH said.

Meeting facilitator John Glover said while the MOE said the decision to relocate is not one for the school community, “I would suggest it's certainly a decision the community can influence”.

“The way it was handled has completely disenfranchised the community,” he said.

Growth projections

Former school board chair Kim Tomlin told the meeting she had had “so many meetings about growth and nowhere in that process was there to be only one school”.

John asked what had changed that led to “a single school future”.

Former student Graham Taylor shared some of the history of the 140 year old school.

Hāwea Flat School principal Tania Pringle said she believed the MOE had looked at education provisions across the entire Upper Clutha and other areas have been identified as areas of growth.

The MOE has identified ‘South Wānaka’ as a potential site for a new primary school.

John identified what the community already knew about the proposal, and posed the question ‘what would long term (30 year) success look like for schooling in the Hāwea area?’.

Meeting attendees pointed out that Luggate and Queensberry are part of the Hāwea Flat School Zone, and that area is also growing rapidly.

The school roll currently comprises 44 students from Luggate/Queensberry; 68 from Hāwea Flat; and 164 who are entitled to use the Timsfield and Lake Hāwea buses. Principal Tania Pringle said these 164 students come from a wide catchment area including the Nook and Maungawera, but are predominantly from the Lake Hāwea township.

School may operate at a deficit 

Concerns were raised that the current school would be operating with inferior resources for the next five to seven years while the MOE stops investment in the school.

Former principal Sue Heath said many children will spend “their entire primary schooling in substandard or non equitable conditions”.

“[The MOH] won’t spend any more money on the school. So in the meantime you’ll have a school that will be in deficit for so many of those things that make education special for kids.”

Sue believes the community will need a new school as well as the existing school at Hāwea Flat.

Meanwhile the school is in the middle of upgrading its drinking water supply, which is insufficient to meet the needs of the growing school.

“As part of our current upgrades we are addressing the potable water. Current storage needs upgrading and we will be installing a UV filter plant to prevent any future quality issues. We are also getting a full upgrade of our waste water plant to meet the growth issues,” Tania said.

‘School conversation’ part of planning project

Hāwea Community Association (HCA) chair Cherilyn Walthew said it was “completely nonsensical“ to get rid of the school given the facilities on site.

The school site includes hard courts, playing fields, a swimming pool, a meeting room (Grandview) funded by community donations, and a community bike park - facilities all well used by the community.

The school is centred in the school ‘triangle’, between the Hāwea Kindergarten and Hāwea Playgroup. The Hāwea Flat Hall is just across the road, and is the site of a range of after school activities including karate and dance classes.

Teacher and parent Lousie Merrell said: “We’re constantly told to consider history and all these things and [the MOE] seem to be disregarding it. They seem to be saying where the school is is not important to the culture.”

Cherilyn said the HCA had requested $8k from the QLDC to undertake town planning independently from council, and the school conversation, which had “come right out of left field”, should be part of that project. 

“We want to see what the community wants so we can incorporate it into the plan.”

Cherilyn said the Longview Special Housing Area (SHA) at Lake Hāwea “will double the size of Hāwea” and “a new school on its own is not going to handle the growth”.

“This is the conversation we’ve been having with council,” she said. “...there is massive scope for housing.”

Tania said the school had been advised there may be a maximum of 500 -700 students for the new school, possibly including years 7-8.

The HFS roll is currently at 271, with 50 more children (mostly new entrants) enrolled to start this year. 

Two schools the preferred option

At the end of the meeting there was a strong consensus of opposition to closing the school, and most people considered that the community would need two schools in the future. 

A committee is being formed of people who “feel passionately” about the community goal of achieving ‘fit-for-purpose’ schooling in Hāwea, meeting organiser Anna van Riel said.

“Following [Monday’s] meeting we can see there is a strong need for a community group to support how we influence the future of schooling and ensure our community voice is heard,” she said.

Anna said the group will need people interested in researching and collating information, writing letters, talking to media, and speaking with the MOE.

Meanwhile Anna has created a short survey (just two questions) for the group to gather more information from the community. The survey is open until Friday July 8.

PHOTOS: Supplied