North Canterbury school's long-awaited $10m upgrade set for end of year
From Adam Burns Local Democracy Reporter
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Multimillion-dollar upgrades at a North Canterbury school may finally be set in motion after the prospect of a burgeoning school roll forced a rethink.
The $10 million redevelopment of Oxford Area School was confirmed four years ago by Education Minister Chris Hipkins and includes the replacement of 11 prefabricated classrooms, a new library and administration block and upgrades to other facilities.
It is the only school in the small Waimakariri town of Oxford. Several other schools in the North Canterbury region also received Government-backed improvements over the past few years.
Principal Mike Hart said construction was earmarked for the end of 2022, although this was a “best-case scenario”.
The previous few years had been marked by rebuild scopes, development of an education brief, and the completion of a long-term master plan last year.
It was previously hoped the build would begin early this year, but now the end of 2022 was considered more realistic.
Hart said catering to the potential growth of pupils during the planning phase had possibly slowed the project.
“A positive projection of the school roll made us think about the size and perhaps having something a bit bigger than we originally thought,” he said.
The predicted school roll for 2022 is 545, but the master plan accommodates for 800.
Detailed design is now the focus for school leaders as headway is sought on the project.
“About three quarters of the year will be spent on [detailed design],” Hart said.
He was hopeful of the build getting under way before the end of the year.
“Whether it is some demolition taking place because we have to remove some buildings to create the space,” Hart said.
“Hopefully some construction will take place by the end of this year. There's lots of factors that determine that.”
Oxford Area School, which caters for year 1 to 13 pupils, opened in 1978, replacing the 100-year Oxford District High School.
Most of the school's existing infrastructure dated back to the Bay Rd site's previous incarnation.
The school's principal agreed that some buildings were now out-of-date.
“They're really old and cost our school a lot of money to update them and keep them as fresh as we can,” Hart said.
Council loan agreed to help Oxford fitness centre grow
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
The Waimakariri District Council has agreed to loan $200,000 so the Oxford Health and Fitness Centre Trust can start a 153m2 expansion of its facility at Pearson Park.
The existing 322 square metre building is owned by the trust, which leases the community fitness centre to the North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust to run.
The expansion will support the fitness centre’s growing membership, which now exceeds 400, trust chairperson Tim Fulton said.
The trust has already raised $55,000 and has a contractor lined up for the build, which is expected to cost $283,000.
It had applied to the Rata Foundation for funding but was unsuccessful.
‘‘The facility is well-used and needs more space, so we feel the risk is relatively low,’’ the council’s community and recreation general manager Chris Brown said.
‘‘The worst case scenario is, if the trust is wound up, the building will pass over to the council and we will have a good community asset.’’
The council will borrow the money on the trust’s behalf, with the trust paying it off over 10 years at an interest rate of 4.65% to cover the council’s costs, Brown said.
Responding to a question at last week’s council meeting, chief executive Jeff Millward said the council was well within its self-imposed borrowing limit of 250% of its rates revenue.
‘‘We could borrow another $150 million and still be within our limit.’’
The council’s debt is about $200m, around 150% of its rates revenue, with a large chunk of it being due to borrowing $100m to repair and replace assets following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.
The North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust manages five fitness centres in Rangiora (two), Kaiapoi and Amberley, as well as the Oxford facility.
The proceeds are used to fund community programmes such as sports coaching in schools and initiatives to help people improve their health.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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