School lives on in recycled materials

Developer Pat Cummings stands on material left over from the Rotary Park School. Photo by Crag...
Developer Pat Cummings stands on material left over from the Rotary Park School. Photo by Crag Baxter.

Rotary Park School may be gone but recycled concrete from the foundations of the Dunedin school means its legacy will remain, developer Pat Cummings says.

The foundations of the school will now be used to make the public road leading into the new subdivision, called Rotary Park Close.

Almost every part of the school, established in 1978 and closed in 2012, has disappeared to be torn up and recycled.

''Since the school has been demolished, the building materials have been distributed throughout Dunedin, including to Port Chalmers, the Presbyterian Church, and in new student flats."

Even the large boulders on the property will be broken up, for use in the construction of the Southern Motorway.

All that remained of the foundations after eight weeks of demolition was a large mound of concrete.

Rotary Park School was closed in late 2012, following a Ministry of Education investigation over complaints of intimidation by then principal Carmel Casey.

The school site was sold by the Ministry of Education to current owner LA Milton Ltd.

The venture was already proving to be successful for developers as the properties were being snapped up, thanks to the flat land and ''magnificent ocean views'', Mr Cummings said.

Already 40% of the sites had been sold, so far entirely to people living within 500m of the subdivision.

Mr Cummings believed property titles would be issued by mid-April or early May.

- Liam Macandrew.

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