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ed••• ;.y_- ==-·-·-· t'::: .·.·: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION TE TAHUHU O TE MATAURANGA

Briefing Note: Update on former lnvercargill School Sites

To:

Date:

Security Level:

Key Contact:

Messaging seen by Communications team:

Purpose of Report

Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister of Education

11 March 2019 Priority: Medium

In Confidence METIS No: 1180215

Rob Giller Deputy Head Infrastructure DDI: Delivery

No Round Robin: No

The purpose of this briefing is to provide you with details of former school sites in lnvercargill following your visit to the city on 1 March 2019.

Summary

0 We understand the Mayor of lnvercargill, Tim Shadbolt, drew your attention to the appearance and condition of many of the city's former school sites.

o All closed school sites in the city have been disposed of by the Ministry of Education in line with the statutory processes set out under the Public Works Act 1981.

o These sites may still resemble school buildings despite being in private ownership.

• Agree that this Briefing will be proactively released.

Kim Shannon Head of Education Infrastructure Service

~ Disagree

Hon Chris Hipkins Minister of Education

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edKey Information

1. There are no former school sites being managed, or in disposal, in lnvercargill City.

2. There is one closed school site in Southland, Isla Bank School in Otautau, which closed on 20 December 2018. This is approximately 50 kilometres from lnvercargill.

3. We are currently determining whether the former Isla Bank School site is still required for educational purposes under section 71 B of the Education Act 1989. If not, the property will then be entered into the disposal process which is managed by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) on behalf of the Crown.

Earlier lnvercargill Education Network Review

4. Several schools were closed between 1999 and 2005 under a review of the entire lnvercargill education network. Information regarding these sites, including the dates of sale and current owners, is detailed in the table attached as Annex 1.

5. Similar information, about schools in Southland that had closed since 1 January 2000, was provided by LINZ in an Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) response to a Southland Times journalist in January 2016. This information, and the resultant media article, are included here as Annexes 2 and 3 respectively.

6. The Southland Times article indicates that Mayor Shadbolt has expressed similar concerns about former school sites in lnvercargill in the past.

7. Annex 4 details the sales of three former school sites in Southland subsequent to the OIA response mentioned above.

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edProactive Release

8. We recommend that this briefing is proactively released as per your expectation that information be released as soon as possible. Any information which may need to be withheld will be done so in line with the provisions of the OIA.

Annexes

Annex 1: Former I nvercargill School sites closed between 1999 and 2005 - information correct as at 5 March 2019.

Annex 2: Former Southland School Sites sold between 1 January 2000 and 11 January 2016.

Annex 3: Some Southland schools reborn, while others decay, Southland Times, 28 March 2016.

Annex 4: Southland Former School Sites sold between 12 January 2016 and 7 March 2019.

Proactively ReleasedFormer lnvercargill school sites closed between 1999 and 2005 - information correct as at 5 March 2019

Name Address Date closed Date sold Sold to Current owner

Clarendon 133 Bain Street, Kingswell 28 January 2005 9 March 2006 NgaiTahu lnvercargill Education Trust

School

Clifton School 75 Humber Street, lnvercargill 28 January 2005 18 August 2006 Ngai Tahu Keith Hogan Limited

Elston Lea 250 McQuarrie Street, Kingswell 1 October 2005 Ngai Tahu

Most on-sold for residential development, with

School some owned by Cook Islands Christian Church

Grasmere 146 Paterson Street, Grasmere 27 January 1999 7 November 2007 Elva Jessie Paul Various residential owners

School Hawthorndale

40 Fairview Avenue, lnvercargill 27 January 1999 3 October 2002 Hydro Company Limited HWR Property Rest Home Limited School lnvercargill 177 Ness Street, Appleby,

28 January 2005 1 March 2006 Paki West Raumati and Michelle Trow PTL Property Trust South School lnvercarQill

Konini School 47-49 McGorlick Street, Bluff 28 March 2006 NgaiTahu Foveaux Properties Limited

Rockdale Park Farrar Street, Heidelberg, 28 January 2005 5 July 2006 Hot Group Developments Limited Hot Group Developments Limited

School lnvercarqill Surrey Park 55 Isabella Street, Glengarry,

30 June 1999 2 April 2015 lnvercargill City Council lnvercargill City Council School lnvercargill Waikiwi School

35 Durham Street, lnvercargill 28 January 2005 16 December2016 The Otago Foundation Trust Board The Otago Foundation Trust Board (oartl

Waikiwi School 21 Durham Street, lnvercargill 28 January 2005 21 March 2017 Ngai Tahu Bainfield Adventist Charitable Trust

West Plains 327 West Plains Road, 28 January 2005 5 June 2008 Ngai Tahu Lot 1 GM Stevens and JR Turner, Lot 2 R Moseby, L

School lnvercarQill

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CLOSED SCHOOL SITES IN SOUTHLAND SOLD F.ROM 1 JANUARY 2.000 iTO 11 JANUARY 2016

_ Veai:_Sold _School Name - SchoolilD) ll Jl!ocatioril 1Date]solct Contract Amount WhoSgldto -

2000 Hokonui Primary 3965 Gore 5/09/2000 40,424 Temete Smith Kiore and Marie Heather Kiore

2001 No schools disposed of this year in the Southland region

2002 Hawthondale School 3962 lnvercargill 3/10/2002 6,019 Hydro Company Limited

2003 Mokoreta School 3988 Near Gore 10/10/2003 65,000 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2004 Tuatapere Primary 4031 Tuatapere 30/03/2004 2,886 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2004 Otapiri School 3998 Otapiri 22/07/2004 15,000 Roger John Stevens and Brenda Lee Stevens

2005 Greenhills School 3959 Bluff 18/02/2005 80,002 Todd William Meikle and Melinda Jane Meikle

2005 Waipahi School 4044 Gore 9/03/2005 35,469 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2005 Five Rivers School 3951 Gore 4/05/2005 130,000 Hokonui Rununga Incorporated

2005 Oreti Plains Primary 3996 Winton 25/08/2005 35,156 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2005 Orawia Primary 3994 Tuatapere 2/11/2005 18,544 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2006 Ohai School 3993 lnvercargill 27/01/2006 111,111 Garth Owen Frew

2006 Clarendon Primary 3937 lnvercargill 9/03/2006 6,045 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2006 Elston Lea Primary 3948 lnvercargill 13/03/2006 57,252 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2006 Orepuki School 3995 lnvercargill 23/06/2006 201,000 Margriet Maria McCullough

2006 Clifton Primary 3939 lnvercargill 18/08/2006 191,369 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2007 Rockdale Park Primary 4009 lnvercargill 13/07/2007 297,842 Hot Group Developments Limited

2007 Grasmere Primary 3958 lnvercargill 4/10/2007 265,218 Elva Jessie Paul

2008 West Plains Primary 4051 lnvercargill 19/05/2008 100,706 Ngai Tahu Property Ltd

2008 Brydone School 3936 Gore 21/10/2008 284,000 Michael Kino Henry; Desiree Dawn Simpson and Mary

Braid Rogers

2009 Dacre School 3942 lnvercargill 4/12/2009 375,000 David van't Wout and Ruby Margaret van't Wout

2009 Kaiwera School 3970 Gore 11/12/2009 250,000 Murray John Johnston and Saffron May Johnston

2009 lnvercargill South Primary 3968 lnvercargill 1/05/2009 276,000 Paki West Raumati and Michelle Trow

2010 No schools disposed of t his year in the Southland region

2011 No schools disposed of this year in the Southland region

2012 No schools disposed of this year in the Southland region

2013 No schools disposed of this year in the Southland region

2014 Waimahaka School 4040 Waimahaka 15/12/2014 178,000 Ngai Tahu Property ltd

2015 Surrey Park School - land only 4025 lnvercargill 2/04/2015 100,000 lnvercargill City Council - offer back to previous owner

2015 Surrey Park School - land only 4025 lnvercargill 12/09/2015 225,000 lnvercargill City Council - sold to local authority for

another public work

2015 Blackmount School 3933 Wairaki 30/09/2015 90,000 Southland District Council - sold to local authority for

another public work

TOTAL 3,437,043.00

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edSome Southland schools reborn, while others decay Ben Mackl3:l l. Mar 28 2016

The closed Hawthomdale School on Tay St in Invercargill has now been demolished by its

owners, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

While several former Southland schools have found new life, others remain "rotting corpses".

Data obtained under the Official Information Act shows the Ministry of Education sold 26 closed school sites in Southland between January 1, 2000, and January 11, 2016.

The majority of schools were in Invercargill, and were sold in the mid-2000s.

Ngai Tahu bought the most schools, with IO schools sold to its real estate arm, Ngai Tahu Property Ltd.

A Ngai Tahu spokeswoman said the schools were bought through the right of first refusal process, and that some of them had been sold to new owners.

She said she could not say who those new owners were.

Invercargill's Elston Lea Primary was sold by the ministry to Ngai Tahu in 2006. The site is currently unoccupied, but the Cook Islands Christian Church

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edInvercargill has applied to the Invercargill City Council (ICC) to operate a church community centre at the former school.

Public submissions regarding the application closed on March 3.

ICC resource management officer Judith Christie said three submissions regarding the application had been received, two of which were opposed to turning the former school into a community centre.

She said one of those submitters had requested their opposition be heard. "That means we are obligated to have a hearing."

She said no hearing date had been set.

One school that has found new life is the former Surrey Park School. The site was sold to the ICC last year for a total of $325,000, with the ICC owning the land. The school buildings themselves are owned by the Ministry of Education, and are used as the Surrey Park Early Leaming Centre.

The centre is a daycare and kindergarten that also offers teen parent support.

ICC parks manager Robin Pagan said it was hoped a draft for a new plan for what to do with the land around Surrey Park would be finished by May.

"These things take time to work through."

Pagan said two football clubs, a rugby club, softball and athletics clubs and other sports organisations currently used the land.

Plans are afoot for other schools as well.

Rockdale Park Primary, in south Invercargill, was sold by the ministry to Hot Group Developments Ltd in July 2007 for nearly $300,000. The school was demolished, and last week a "for sale" sign was visible at the site, listing Ray White realtor John Hawke as a point of contact.

Hawke declined to comment on the sale of the former school site.

Two separate resource consent applications were filed with the ICC in 2008 to demolish the school.

Grasmere School in Paterson St was sold to Elva Jessie Paul for about $265,000 in 2007. In 2009, the former school's 2ha site was auctioned off, after two resource consents were filed in 2008 to subdivide the land into 28 and 27 different lots.

Plans for other schools do not appear to have come to fruition.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church bought the former Hawthomdale School from a private owner in 2009. At the time, church leaders said they hoped to

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edtum the 2. 7ha site into a community centre, with a land use consent for offering activities for young people lodged with the ICC in 2009.

Instead, the school was demolished, with a large pile of rubble remaining at the back of the site in Tay St. Church leaders declined to say what they planned to do next with the school site.

The school was sold by the ministry in 2002.

Several schools sold by the ministry have been converted into homes. Dacre School closed in 2008 after its roll dropped from 17 pupils to five in the span of a year. The school, which opened in 1900, was sold in 2009 by the ministry to David van't Wout and Ruby Margaret van't Wout for $375,000 - the most the ministry sold any of its schools for.

In 2011, Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt called unused former school sites "rotting corpses". He described the situation as a "nightmare" for neighbours.

In 2005, more than one-third of Invercargill schools were closed, with numbers falling from 30 to 19. Some schools were shuttered while others merged, and all intermediate schools were closed.

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Southland former school sites sold between 12 January 2016 and 7 March 2019

,~;;;JJiji 2016 2017 2018

School Name

Part Waikiwi School Part Waikiwi School Willowbank School

t

School ID

4039 4039 3981

. . . lnvercargill lnvercargill

Gore

Date Sold

16 Dec 16 21 Mar 17 19 Dec 18

Contract Amount

$150,000 $610,000 $240,000

Property Type

Closed School - land only Closed school and land

Closed school/house/land

..