As a result of the continued increase of student numbers at Mount Aspiring College, significant changes are planned for 2022.

MAC is now the largest high school in Otago - the college expects to enrol 1300 students in the coming year.

MAC board of trustees chair Ian Hall says 2022 will be a significant year for the college, with changes to staffing and school facilities to accommodate the expanding roll.

Read more: MAC adapts as roll increases

The college will move into the new buildings developed as part of a $33.5M project designed to support a range of curriculum areas and accommodate up to 1800 students.

The first new building will be completed by term two, with learning spaces for year 7 and 8 students including new facilities for music, dance and drama; later in the year, additional buildings will be finished that will provide more teaching spaces, a new library, and facilities for staff and the college’s administration, Ian said. 

In a first for Wānaka, there will also be a new whare which is being planned in consultation with Ngai Tāhu.

“We'll need to cope with further disruption… but the new facilities will be well worth the short-term hassle in providing us with facilities that will be as good as any in the country,” Ian said.

The school year will also begin with a new member on the college’s leadership team: Gillian (Gill) McCaskey has been appointed as the college’s deputy principal.

Gill McCaskey 

Gill comes to Wānaka from a senior position at Kristin School in Auckland, and she has previously worked at Saint Kentigern College.

She holds degrees from the University of Leicester and the University of Leeds, and she worked in schools in Scotland, Kenya, and Thailand before coming to New Zealand. 

Gill and her husband Richard, an arborist from Waikato, are looking forward to making a contribution to the college and to the wider community, Gill said. 

“I have a passion for helping young people to discover and reach their full potential, and I have a real love of the outdoors.”

Gill will join the college’s leadership team of Nicola Jacobsen (Principal), Vicki Ashton, Hamish Crosbie, and Dean Sheppard.

The school will also have four head students this year instead of two.

Ian said negotiations to acquire the former pool site on Plantation Road would continue this year, and if successful they would allow for the construction of new gymnasium and recreation facilities.

The school year begins on Monday January 31.

PHOTOS: Supplied