The Ministry of Education is still unable to reveal how much the merger of five south Dunedin schools will cost, and concern is growing about whether the budgeted $2.75 million for capital costs will be enough.
In June this year, the ministry budgeted about $2 million in capital costs for the merger of College Street School on the Caversham School site, with an outpost at Calton Hill School.
A further $750,000 in capital costs was budgeted for the merger of Forbury School and Macandrew Intermediate.
With only five months until the merged schools open, the Ministry of Education is still unable to say how much the actual cost of merging the schools will be.
Ministry of Education policy manager, property, Jerome Sheppard said no decisions had yet been made about what renovations would be needed at Caversham or Macandrew Schools.
"Therefore, it would be inappropriate to speculate what their future property needs might be or what costings might be associated with them."
Further questioning of a spokesman for Education Minister Anne Tolley found internal property work at Macandrew Intermediate before the 2012 opening would include the upgrade of 11 classrooms, toilet upgrades and the relocation of the staff room.
External work would include new fencing and the development of an off-street entry area.
However, he too was unable to divulge final costings for the work.
"Final costings have still to be confirmed and the work will be funded from the capital funding already allocated to Macandrew Intermediate and Forbury Primary."
A principal of one of the schools, who declined to be named for fear of jeopardising their chances of winning one of the new principal positions, said there were fewer than 13 school weeks left - not counting school holidays - before the merged schools would open.
"They should really know what the cost is going to be by now, if they are going to be ready to open in time.
"They should know what needs to be done and what it will cost.
"At the moment, we have no way of knowing whether what they've budgeted is going to be enough."
Macandrew-Forbury Board of Trustees chairwoman Joy Clark said she had met the contractors who would do the alterations, and a meeting would be held on Monday night in which she hoped final costings would be discussed.
She believed the merger was "moving along very nicely" but declined to comment any further.
Caversham-College Street-Calton Hill Board of Trustees chairwoman Isabell Irwin Sinclair was unavailable for comment.
