But for Wakatipu High School board chairman Peter Doyle, the recent announcement of $1.3 million from the Ministry of Education would be made available to build six new classrooms, the news was "far from exciting".
Mr Doyle, who was now in his second term as chairman, said for the past four years his board had almost solely been acting as "project managers", leaving little time for its other responsibilities, which included staff matters, disciplinary matters and budgets.
The problems began in 2004 when the high school received $1.3 million to build four classrooms.
The Ministry of Education used a national model to determine how much funding was needed to build facilities, but did not take into account the price of building in Queenstown, Mr Doyle said.
The problem was further exacerbated because the announcement came during a "building boom" in Queenstown, meaning contracted builders could charge what they wanted to get the job done.
However, the ministry did not "appreciate" how much it cost to build in the resort and refused to provide additional funding to make up the $400,000 shortfall.
The high school was forced to raise funds, and use money from school fees and international pupils fees to enable the classrooms to be build.
"We've been on the back foot ever since."
Because of the time it took to find the difference in funding, the classrooms had not been started by last October.
Mr Doyle said the board went back to the ministry and said the physical works needed to start before the end of the year if the classrooms were to be finished by March.
"It took until the end of January to get $150,000 [from the ministry]. We were about four months behind the eight ball before we even started.
"We aren't going to have the four [classrooms] finished until August.
"They're now saying we've given you $1.3 million to build six.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist.
"It's cost $1.6 million to build four, how can we build six for the same price?"What are we going to do now?"They've given us money, which is well short. We haven't got any more money [and] we can't go to the community and ask them to help."
Mr Doyle said a meeting with the Ministry of Education in Dunedin yesterday was geared at helping explain the situation for the high school, but it would be "months" before any decisions were made.
"It's far from exciting . . . we're just going to have to go back and start this process for the fourth year.
"I'm not a builder or a project manager, but it's all I seem to be doing.
"Every time we go through this, we go through the same rigmarole."
Meanwhile, the school's role was continuing to climb, putting more pressure on already stretched resources, with no end in sight, he said.
"We've got classrooms with 30-plus kids now, which is not ideal.
"We're the only high school [in the area] and we can't not take kids; we don't have a choice, we are it.
"I guess moaning a bit is just trying to get [the ministry] to realise we need to start funding and building now to meet the demands of future growth."
Mr Doyle said the one of the most concerning things about the recent announcement was what would happen if the school's bid for additional funding was rejected.
"I asked [a ministry representative] what would happen if we don't get [additional funding].
"He said, `Then you won't be able to build anything.'"If we can't build, where do we put the kids?"
