College Street School office manager Jimmi Anderson said about 30m of spouting was stolen from one of the school's buildings between Thursday and Saturday last week.
The cost of replacing the spouting (not with copper) would probably be about $2000, and did not include the cost of new sensor lights which were installed yesterday, Mrs Anderson said.
"I just thought it might be good to let people know this is going on, and wondered if anyone else had had any problems."
Police were investigating the theft.
Sergeant Tony Ritchie, of the Dunedin police intelligence unit, said there had recently been a slight increase in the number of copper thefts, although nothing dramatic.
Generally, the offending was related to a few individuals and thefts usually indicated a price increase for the scrap metal, he said.
Scrap metal dealers contacted yesterday said they were offering about $5 to $5.20 a kg for copper.
Prices were about the same as they were two years ago, but had been up to $7 a kg during that time.
The number of school burglaries in Dunedin and South Otago has declined after an unusual spike in August and September.
It appeared the burglaries were related to two groups of offenders, and had dropped off since suspects were spoken to by Dunedin police's volume crime squad, Sgt Ritchie said.
