Education Minister Anne Tolley has presented several options for the South Dunedin community to consider, including a proposed merger of Macandrew Intermediate and Forbury School as a year 1-8 school on the Macandrew site, or closing Macandrew and retaining Forbury School as a year 1-8 school on its current site.
In a report to Mrs Tolley, the Ministry of Education has expressed its preference to merge the two on the Macandrew site.
Yesterday, Forbury board chairman David Yates said consultation with the school's community had found it was vehemently opposed to a merger with Macandrew and had made submissions on alternatives which had, so far, fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Yates said the Forbury site could be easily expanded to accommodate pupils from Macandrew.
Forbury has six classrooms which could be modified into 11.
"It means we could easily accommodate the projected 40 year 8 pupils from Macandrew Intermediate next year and continue to grow from there.
"The ministry does not seem to have considered the merger of the two schools on the Forbury site."
Mr Yates said the ministry appeared to favouring Macandrew because of its capacity for expansion.
"But there's an irony, in that this review has come about because the rolls are projected to decline."
Forbury principal Janice Tofia said the board had in its submissions also raised the idea of the ministry buying the old St Patrick's School site.
She said St Patrick's, situated directly across the road on Melbourne St, could be run as a campus alongside Forbury by a single board of trustees.
"We believe the Government could sell Macandrew Intermediate and buy St Patrick's and put the intermediate there.
"Senior pupils need to do technology and there is an availability of woodwork, metalwork, cooking and sewing facilities at Tahuna Intermediate and King's High School."
Mrs Tofia said the school's roll was nearly 150 and climbing.
"If Macandrew and Forbury merged on to the Macandrew site, calculations for next year's roll were for about 200 pupils at most.
"In a school that holds 400 plus, there would still be a lot of unused space and the school would have no energy, no vibrance."
Mr Yates said the community's main concern about a merger to Macandrew was the loss of all the character the school had worked hard to develop in the past decade.
"The community want their children to stay firmly on the Forbury site."
Mrs Tolley is expected to make a final decision on the fate of the schools in early July. The changes could be implemented from term 1 next year.
