Plan to solve leaky school unveiled

A sweeping plan to solve Arrowtown School's leaky building issues has been unveiled.

Nine months after the Ministry of Education announced the school had weathertightness issues with seven of its nine blocks, a concept master plan shows how its Centennial Rd campus may look in four years' time.

The product of a five-month collaboration between the school and Dunedin company Logic Group, the plan is now with the ministry awaiting approval.

Principal Chris Bryant said the school was excited by the opportunities created by a plan that left only three buildings untouched and introduced the latest thinking on modern learning principles.

''They are adaptable, light, and have a good flow between the inside and outside''.

Details of the plan are contained in a newsletter sent to parents last night.

It proposes the demolition of four leaky buildings in addition to the three that were levelled to make way for a $2.4 million classroom and library block opened last month.

Two new double-storey blocks will be built to house learning spaces and an administration area, with provision for a third building in the future.

Two existing buildings will be reroofed and external cladding and windows replaced, while the school's hall will undergo minor repairs.

Mr Bryant said a start date had yet to be set, but the building programme was due for completion within the next four years.

It would be staged to ensure minimal disruption to learning.

The just-opened classroom block meant the school was not ''packed to the gunnels'' as previously.

The new layout placed buildings on a north-south axis that minimised winter shade, protected the school's green areas and created a ''flow'' through the campus. Opened in 1997, the school was built in an era when plaster walls and small or no eaves were common.

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