Sara Cohen School principal Raewyn Alexander contacted The Star after reading a recent article about the Ministry of Education spending $8 million on 119 special-needs modification projects at 48 Dunedin schools in the last 10 years.
''While not wanting to decry what the ministry has done to enable regular schools to be accessible, and not wanting to deny those schools the work being done, I do want to point out that all is not equal in Dunedin,'' Mrs Alexander said.
''I have been involved with the school for 19 years. For all of those 19 years, and for some time before that, we have sought from the Ministry of Education a rebuild of classrooms that are now 88 years old. Discussions have gone around and around for years with no resolution.''
The old rooms were held together by paint and borer, she said.
Part of the floor in one had to be repaired after it collapsed under the weight of a wheelchair, and the base of a cupboard in a room had rotted due to water rising beneath the floor when it rained, she said.
''We know that the Ministry of Education is encouraging all schools to be more inclusive and we also encourage that. However, there are students for whom regular schools just do not fit, and these kids should get what every other student expects,'' she said.
The ministry had spent some money on upgrades at the school, including an administration block.
''In the admin upgrade we were denied self-opening doors, which means our students and a part-time staff member who are in wheelchairs have to ring a door bell for the admin secretary or me to open the door to let them in,'' Mrs Alexander said.
The two Sara Cohen satellite classes at Bathgate Park School and Concord School had also been remodelled but these were not the school's property, Mrs Alexander said.
Ministry of Education education infrastructure service head Kim Shannon said Sara Cohen received a capital sum for property every five years, which the school decided how to spend. At present, it had a five-year capital allocation of $241,000, to run until July 2018.
''The school has prioritised other work ahead of classroom upgrades over the last 19 years. That was a decision made by the school, not the ministry,'' she said. The decision not to include self-opening doors in the admin block had also not been made by the ministry, Ms Shannon said.
In the past 20 years, $690,000 had been spent on Sara Cohen school's property, $500,000 of that in the past 10 years.
''We take the needs and safety of all schools we manage very seriously. For this reason we prioritise health and safety and weathertightness issues above other refurbishment work. We would not let any students study in accommodation that is deemed unsafe by our engineers,'' she said.
The ministry had received a proposal from Sara Cohen which included plans for upgrading three of the older classrooms and the associated kitchen area for an estimated $170,000. There was no reason to think this would not be approved, Ms Shannon said.
