Mailtai School is the only specialist day school in Nelson. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
A decade after its facilities were deemed unsuitable, Nelson's Maitai School will finally be rebuilt.
Education Minister Erica Stanford visited the only specialist day school in Nelson on Tuesday to announce to students, their families and staff, that a new Maitai Base School will be built in Richmond with part of the $90 million in funding to redevelop specialist facilities and increase satellite classrooms for those with high needs.
She said a recent Education Review Office report had highlighted the importance of specialist education day schools, like Maitai School, that catered for students between the ages of five and 21 years with a range of high and complex needs.
The room erupted with cheers and applause when Stanford announced the school would be relocated to the Salisbury School grounds and a new campus built by mid-2026.
"I know this school has been waiting for some kind of answer, some kind of redevelopment for 10 years, that is far too long.
"The service that you provide to the children, the support that you provide to the community and to parents and families is invaluable."
Stanford said the classrooms in the current school were small and not fit for purpose which meant staff were unable to provide the level of care they wanted to and had been doing "an amazing job under trying circumstances".
Maitai School principal Jenny Milne said she was ecstatic to learn the redevelopment would finally be going ahead, after having faced "every barrier and every hurdle to jump over".
Erica Stanford speaks to Maitai School principal Jenny Milne. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
She said the school site was deemed unsuitable 10 years ago, and the discussion about the rebuild started back then, and the last five years had been spent in the planning stages.
The future of the new school and a proposed satellite teaching space were put in jeopardy when the government review of school property was announced in April.
"It's been incredibly stressful for parents in particular. There were 13 families that didn't know where their rangatahi were going to go next year."
Milne said the school's current site near the Maitai River had won awards when it was first built in 1980, but it was no longer fit for purpose.
"We have students here that we need to keep apart at times and we find that incredibly hard and it is the staff that wear it. They are incredible at keeping people safe but sometimes they have to put themselves on the line and that is not good enough, we need to have buildings that can do that for us."
She said the new site was larger than the existing school and would include four classrooms, an administration block, resource room, whānau room/hall and a therapy block along with space to allow for roll growth.
The current school site would become a hub for older students to help them prepare for a transition into the community.
Erica Stanford speaks to a staff member. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
NZ Specialist Education Principals Association president Maureen Poulter said the announcement came after years of underfunding and showed both a commitment to specialist education and that it was an important part of New Zealand's education system.
"We've waited a really long time for that to happen...we have been an inconvenient truth in the education system and I'm really grateful the current minister has really strongly positioned specialist education as being part of that continuum of choice for parents...and they have also backed that up with investment in property which is long overdue."
Poulter said there were many parents who knew specialist education was the best choice for their child, but there wasn't the provision or capacity for them to attend one.
"There's some very long wait lists in some areas, so this is going to take a national plan and years of investment."
Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Salisbury School principal Ellie Salčin-Watts said it was heartening to hear the Education Minister talk of her support for residential specialist schools and her understanding of what they provided for young people with high needs.
The announcement Salisbury School would be refurbished from Ministry of Education baseline funding was welcomed, after it was first announced by then Education minister Chris Hipkins in 2019.
"It is weathertight and it is warm...but every week there is infrastructure failure on a significant level, the piping, the electricity, the rooves, the list is never ending so this will mean a really well designed learning and living environment for our young people."
Salčin-Watts said the site was on its way to becoming a specialist hub to serve young people with high needs, with the relocation of Maitai School, the refurbishment of Salisbury and the recent opening of the joint Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education New Zealand, and BLENNZ (Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand) facility all on the one site in Richmond.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said she was pleased the government had committed to the school's redevelopment, including her call that funding for the redevelopment of specialist schools should be ringfenced.
She said the project was a necessity, as disabled students had just as much of a right to a quality education as any other students in New Zealand.
"Parents, staff and our wider community have been uncertain and anxious, since learning in April that the new school planned a satellite at Nayland College, were in doubt. This followed cuts to disability support services announced by the government earlier this year, adding to the pressure and uncertainty faced by this community."
She said the school and its staff did vitally important work, and had made a difference in the lives of so many families in Nelson and across the top of the south.
