Labour MP and Cabinet minister David Parker was in Wanaka yesterday to announce a $21.5 million redevelopment fund for the overcrowded school.
Staff, pupils, parents and supporters have been waiting for five years to hear if they can push on with plans to build a new school on a site adjoining Mount Aspiring College, in Scurr Heights.
Mr Parker said Prime Minister Helen Clark had made the final decision on funding in Cabinet last week, overruling Treasury pleas to go with a cheaper option of redeveloping the school's existing site.
"This area has been booming for some time and a consequence of that is the need to cater for the extra school children in the region," he told pupils, parents and school staff.
Wanaka Board of Trustees chairman Pete Bullen said the Cabinet decision was insightful and would help future-proof education in the district for the next 20 years.
The allocated funding was "very close" to the original amount the school board and a redevelopment design consortium had proposed to the Ministry of Education.
"This is a superb decision for everyone," he said.
Principal Dr Wendy Bamford said it was an "awesome" result.
Confirmation of funding meant pupils' education needs would not be restricted by the school's cramped conditions and property problems for much longer, she said.
Mr Parker visited the school to make the announcement on behalf of Minister of Education Chris Carter, who has been detained in Wellington while parliament sits under urgency.
The Ministry of Education bought 6.275ha of land at Scurr Heights for $5.9 million in February 2004.
Mr Parker told a crowd at the school yesterday that at the time the price was the highest the ministry had ever paid for land designated for a new school.
The $21.5m fund allocated for the relocation and new buildings is triple the amount originally proposed by then-Minister of Education Steve Maharey in April 2004.
The ministry had budgeted on a $7 million fund to relocate facilities and build the new school.
Construction firm Amalgamated Buildings Ltd has been awarded a contract for stage one of the design plans for the relocation, which is hoped to be completed by 2010.
Dr Bamford said the school would be kept busy managing its existing facilities in the interim. She expected the school to have 435 students by the end of the year and a roll of 500 by 2009.
