The ministry appears to be forcing the North Dunedin school to reduce its roll from 460 pupils to 350, by way of a proposal to demolish nine classrooms and funding the replacement of only four of them.
Board of trustees chairwoman Holly Hammond said the school planned to continue its "intake as usual per our current enrolment scheme and policies", because a decision regarding property was yet to be made.
"That is, enrolment will continue as normal in 2024.
"We are constantly considering the capacity of the school and will let the school community know when any changes are needed.
"All children enrolled for 2024 have a place at the school and we will continue to welcome enrolment inquiries.
"The school board is communicating with the ministry to try to find potential solutions, so that we can retain the school character as it is," she said.
The cut in teaching spaces was deemed necessary by the ministry because funding for the replacement classrooms would be based on the number of pupils living within the school’s enrolment zone.
The zone predominantly includes student accommodation, motels, Woodhaugh Gardens, the University of Otago, Logan Park fields, the University Oval and a lot of uninhabited land both up Leith Valley and the Northern Motorway.
So only 103 of the school’s 460 pupils are from within the school zone, meaning funding is limited.
The ministry has given the board the option to relinquish the junior site — on the east side of George St — and have all pupils housed on the main site, on the west side of George St.
However, the board believed it would leave very little recreation space for pupils.
The ministry gave the option to keep the junior site and put the four new teaching spaces there, but there would be no funding for a staffroom, resource room or sick bay on the junior site.
The board said a staffroom on the junior site was needed for health and safety purposes, to ensure enough adults were on site during break times.
The school’s board of trustees held a community meeting last month to gather parents’ views on the ministry’s proposals.
About 80 people attended, accusing the ministry of being "unnecessarily inflexible and opaque" in its decision-making over the school’s future, and one parent warned there would be "parental push-back" over it.
There was broad agreement the ministry’s plan was not serving the school, pupils or the community well.
A ministry spokeswoman said staff were continuing to work with the school on property solutions due to the condition of some buildings.
