The Ministry of Education has plans to pack up Hawea Flat School and relocate it to the centre of Lake Hawea township, a decision that has left parents bewildered.
The ministry confirmed plans are still on the table to relocate the historic school just 9km down the road but could not put a timeline on it.
New classrooms were opened at the school in 2023.
The plans were first announced in June 2022, but all has gone silent since then for the community.
The decision to relocate the school was originally made three years ago when the ministry reviewed the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s spatial plan showing future growth would focus on Lake Hawea and not rural areas.
No government minister has visited the school since, or spoken to the school, but the ministry confirmed it was investigating options for an appropriate site to relocate but refused to confirm where.
School principal Tania Pringle said the school was aware there was still an intention to relocate but had not heard anything else from the ministry.
"Until they give us 100% assurance, we’re just going business as usual and focusing on the students we’ve got."
Third generation former pupil Teresa Cotter, whose two sons attend the school, said the decision made little financial sense given the amount of investment the school and wider community had poured in — especially as the population increased.
"The school has done so much work for the growth in the community and to accommodate all those kids.
"It feels too wasteful to me.
"It is a great school.
"To me it still has the country feel about it."
Keeping the school in the hub of Hāwea Flat also made logistics easy for parents, she said.
"Schools are noisy. Are people in Hāwea going to want to listen to kids all day long out on the fields? It is in a great place where it is out in Hāwea Flat."
A better option would be to add an intermediate in the Upper Clutha area to ease children into those high school years.
The school has a roll of about 400 pupils.
However, in the past five years Lake Hāwea has grown and new developments such as Timsfield have expanded.
If QLDC population predictions are correct, the population is growing at a rate of 6% per annum. This would mean there would need to be a school by 2040.
Hāwea parent Anna van Riel felt the decision was counterproductive.
"The school is flourishing and is the last semi-rural school in the QLDC.
"It serves as a connecting hub for many of our rural families, and is situated beside Hāwea’s kindy, playgroup and the Hāwea Flat Hall."
The region needed a second school to cope with the growth, specifically one that went up to year 8 as it would take the pressure off Mount Aspiring College.
"I feel this is an incredibly important element that can get lost when stepping from a primary school environment into a huge high school like [Mount Aspiring College]," she said.
