Parents Demand Answers From Government Over Five Year Delay for Western Springs College Rebuild

Angry parents are asking why the Government keeps delaying the promised rebuild of Western Springs College, the only co-ed secondary school in Auckland’s inner west.

Western Springs College is one of the top-performing state high schools in the country with academic results that continue to improve every year.

“However, because of a lack of leadership and commitment by the Ministry of Education, the school’s buildings and classrooms are some of the worst in the country,” says parent Stephen Knight-Lenihan. “On the promise of a rebuild, there has now been a halt on any significant maintenance for five years. Now, we’re no closer to getting a new school while the existing buildings are becoming sub-standard for learning, and a health and safety risk.”

When Dan Salmon enrolled his eldest child at the school in 2012, parents were shown plans for a full rebuild of the school and told it would be starting by the end of that year.

“Three years later, my second child is at the school and we’re still waiting. The parents and pupils have had enough and we want answers from the Government about why they keep delaying.”

Western Spring College, formerly Seddon Tech, was built on an old quarry and landfill site. Some of the school buildings have had issues with subsidence and in 2011, with student numbers skyrocketing in the inner city, work began on a master plan that was presented to the school community in 2012.

"When they committed to that, most maintenance stopped and now the buildings are an absolute disgrace,” says Knight-Lenihan, “Students are in cold rooms, with bad condensation, cracked walls, and poor internet service because it hasn't made any sense to upgrade it. The school is not geared up for increasing numbers of new students.”

Western Springs College has about 1,350 pupils and has been the top-performing decile 8 state secondary school in New Zealand for the past seven years (based on NCEA pass rates for Levels 1 to 3 and University Entrance). It is also first equal among all 56 state secondary schools in the Auckland region and has ranked first or second every year since 2009.

“The Ministry of Education should be rewarding successful schools, not punishing them, yet Western Springs’ management and the Board of Trustees keep getting different stories and broken promises from the Ministry,” says Salmon.

Now the school has been told the Ministry of Education has presented options to the Minister, which the community has not been consulted upon.

As a result, the Board of Trustees has written to Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye saying it is wholly dissatisfied with the rebuild process and wants to see a concept master plan developed in accordance with what the Board understood was agreed to as part of a process begun in 2011.

“Less than a year ago, shortly before the election, Nikki Kaye and the Government said Western Springs College was at the top of its school rebuild list and that the money was available. We want to know what has happened since then,” says Knight-Lenihan.

The school community demands to know who is responsible for the ongoing delays, “At one meeting,” says Salmon, “the Ministry apologised for their pre-geological survey plan and presented a new one. When I asked for a copy of the plans to show parents, the Ministry representative refused to put anything on paper.”

“They turn up, make verbal promises they have no intention of keeping and provide nothing on paper so there is no way of holding them to those promises. Then they blame their lack of action on anything from the Christchurch rebuild to swelling inner city rolls despite the fact we’ve known about growing rolls for 10 years.”

Parent Ian Hughes says: “My daughter’s teachers are fantastic but they operate out of classrooms that look like no-one has touched them since I was at school. The Government frequently talks about the importance of technology in education yet Western Springs College has very unreliable internet connections because the buildings haven’t been modernised for years. Is this the Government’s vision of education? Best school, worst buildings.”

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