Education Minister Anne Tolley says the ministry's property plans have not adequately coped with Queenstown's rapid growth and she had "some urgent work to do" to reassure schools of their long-term futures.
Ms Tolley's comments came after she met establish-ment board trustees for an update on the Remarkables Primary School development yesterday. They visited the site where the school will be built in Lake Ave and will open next year.
The minister was in the resort to attend the South Island Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools conference at the Millennium Hotel.
Ms Tolley visited Queenstown Primary School to talk about the recapitation of years 7 and 8 off Wakatipu High School.
She said she also had a "very positive" discussion with Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes and council chief executive Duncan Field, who were very keen to see Remarkables Primary up and running, she said.
"They talked me through the growth of the area and that's important. There's an area strategy coming to me soon about schooling and we've got to make some decisions about what happens to [Wakatipu] High School which is cramped on a small site."
Ms Tolley said the strategy paper was "imminent".
"We need to give the schools here some certainty, so I need to make some decisions about their long-term futures and that's particularly for Queens-town Primary and for Wakatipu High schools."
Siteworks for Remark-ables Primary School were set for April 21 and former Southland principal Deborah Dickson was due to start work that week.
The school would open in stages in the first term of 2010, before its full opening on the first day of the second term.
Ms Tolley said there were ongoing discussions with the community and other primary schools about the boundaries of the school's catchment.
The Government announced capital funding of $17.3 million for the project in December.
