After school closures and mergers in Dunedin in recent years there has finally been some good news for parents in the Corstorphine and Calton Hill area. Dan Hutchinson catches up with everyone at Carisbrook Heights School as they find out their site will stay open permanently.
A ''cloud'' of uncertainty over the future of Carisbrook Heights School has lifted with an announcement the school will remain open permanently.
Calton Hill, Caversham and College Street Schools merged to form Carisbrook School two years ago in South Rd.
The Calton Hill site at the top of Riselaw Rd was renamed Carisbrook Heights and three of its 10 classrooms remained open as a satellite of the newly merged school.
Carisbrook School principal Ben Sincock said last week's joint decision of the board of trustees and Ministry of Education to leave the site open permanently followed a formal review by Impact Consulting.
He said the uncertainty over the future of the site had been a cloud hanging over the school since the merger was announced in 2011.
''Now the announcement has been made we might expect the site to grow because the uncertainty is gone now.''
Site manager and teacher Debbie Griffiths said there were about 40 pupils at Carisbrook Heights and the spare classrooms were being used by three different groups - all of which worked with at-risk or disabled children and their families.
There were many low-income families without cars in the neighbourhood and if the site had closed many parents would have faced paying $15 per week for bus fares for their children.
''Every person you meet has said `when are you closing?' and they thought it was only a matter of time but we are here to stay,'' Mrs Griffiths said.
Mr Sincock said Carisbrook Heights had a ''real community feel'' to it with all the benefits of a small school and the benefits of being part of a larger organisation.
The upper and lower schools often did activities together.
