Auckland City Council

Press Release

Mayor of Auckland City Chris Fletcher says the city wants to take a leadership role in shaping a plan to ensure there is sufficient future capacity and new secondary schools in Auckland that can be taken to central government.

The Mayor has chaired a meeting of Auckland City secondary school principals and boards of trustees to discuss growth pressures on schools.

Ken Rapson, principal of Mt Roskill Grammar School will coordinate a group to work with the council to confirm schools optimum capacity and expected growth, which will be checked against Ministry of Education information.

Auckland City Planning Manager John Duthie has previously assisted the Ministry of Education in identifying potential additional schools sites around the city will liase with the group. A new investigation of future sites has been undertaken and the working group will also discuss how future schools would best compliment existing schools.

Mrs Fletcher says the city has a strong interest in the future provision of schools in Auckland. "Considerable work has been done by City Planning to assist the Ministry of Education. Schools are an essential part of our social infrastructure and Auckland City wants to take an integrated approach to planning for future growth."

"Ministry of Education forecasts of future demand have recently dropped substantially and we must be sure that planning is based on accurate information. The working group will bring together all of the information schools have with the city’s research to create a complete picture of what we can expect." she said.

She says the city can take a strong advocacy role with the working group to ensure Auckland City has adequate schools. I am very pleased that the school principals and boards are willing to work in this forum to address our growth.

Mrs Fletcher says that landbanking must be continued by the Government to provide for the schools needed in the future. We can’t have our students needs being left out of the planning for the future.

© Scoop Media