Dealing with fallout of earthquake prone building a 'logistical nightmare', school principal says

Reorganising timetables for teachers and students at a Wellington school after a block of classrooms was found to be earthquake prone is a "logistical nightmare".

Wellington Girls' College is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday after it was found part of the school's Brook Block met just 15 percent of new build standards.

Principal Julia Davidson told Morning Report it was a shock to find out - and 13 classrooms which house about 380 students every school hour were affected.

What was more shocking to find out was the Ministry of Education had known about the seismic risk since 2020 - but never told the school.

"We've gone through every document that we have and we keep really tidy meeting notes, of course, of every meeting we have with them, three of us involved, there is no mention of it at all and we can't find it in any of the documents that they've sent us.," Davidson said.

"We're not thrilled."

Davidson said the school only found out by accident in April.

After the discovery, Davidson said the ministry refused to fund a thorough seismic report and offered instead a 'targeted' report on part of the building.

So the school paid for for a full report - and both reports found the block met just 15 percent of new build standards.

And she said there's been no useful response from the Ministry.

"It's infuriating that there's been no real option put to us, and we've been pushing them for options for about 10 weeks."

Davidson told Morning Report the ministry believes the block is still safe to use as the risk of a one in 1000-year earthquake occurring is statistically low in he time the school would be occupying the building.

But the school's board has taken a more "conservative approach" and decided no one was to use the classrooms from Thursday.

Closing the school in the two days until then was for a rejig of the school timetable and organising one year group to be online learning from home each day.

"It's a logistical nightmare to do this because kids aren't just taught in one block and teachers don't just teach in one classroom."

Davidson said every single teacher and student was affected by this issue.

The ministry had said they would begin repair work on the building in October, and it would be ready to go by the start of the 2025 school year.

But Davidson said she had no confidence in that given every other project at the school had faced delays.

"We are very worried about that as well."

She said the ministry was well aware of her thoughts on the situation and they had been meeting fortnightly to discuss alternatives.

Solutions the school had suggested had been struck down - but there was one option on the table, where the school may be able to use a nearby building for teaching from October.

Davidson said she believed students were shocked by this change and parents who had contacted her were annoyed.

Parents of senior students were specifically worried as their children would be dealing with NCEA exams in the coming weeks and this would "significantly" affect them.

The Ministry of Education said it did tell the school, but admitted its communication could have been clearer.

Its head of property, Sam Fowler, told Nine to Noon it had been working with the school on seismic problems since 2019, which included advice about the Brook Block being earthquake prone.

"My understanding is that conversations were had with the school over that period, and not just about Brook, but about others, too," he said.

"But ... clearly, from the feedback that has been given by the school, that communication, those conversations, could have been far clearer, could have been far better."

The building was still safe, Fowler said, but he supported the board's decision to keep people out.

"A low NBS rating isn't a need for alarm, or immediate action, the risk is still very low," he said.

"Our advice to the school has been that this building could continue to be occupied. That doesn't mean though, that the decision made by the Board is the wrong decision."

While Ministry of Education engineers provided advice, the final decision sat with the Board, he said.

Staff were moved out of the ministry's own building, Mātauranga House, when it received an NBS rating of 25 percent.

Davidson told Nine to Noon that "rubs salt in the wound" and was "pretty insulting".

But Fowler said the risk at Mātauranga House was different to that at the college, and other factors had to be considered.

"There's other buildings that the ministry occupies that have had ratings of below 34 percent, that we've continued to occupy, because the specific context of those buildings has been different," he said.

"Every building subject to the NBS has a different risk associated with it, and it needs to be effectively considered when making decisions around ongoing occupation."

That included the level of disruption if people were forced to vacate it, Fowler said.

Although the risk in Mātauranga House was "extremely low", staff could easily work from home or be moved to other locations, so a decision was made to reduce "low risk to no risk", he said.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the ministry has been dealing with schools in a transparent way since she assumed the portfolio.

The issue with the school was an operational matter for the ministry's property team.

"She is assured the team understands her expectations," her office told RNZ on Tuesday.

"The minister has made clear to the Ministry of Education, officials are to be transparent and open with all schools.

"She is confident the ministry has been dealing with schools in that manner since she has been minister."