Parents, staff and pupils at Te Kura Kaupapa o Otepoti will learn the fate of their school next week when the Ministry of Education announces its decision on whether the kura can relocate to the former High Street School premises in Dunedin.
The kura's board of trustees asked the Ministry of Education if it could relocate to the High St premises in March this year, after the High Street School board of trustees applied to close the 123-year-old school because of severely declining rolls.
High Street School was a decile 7, year 1-6 contributing school with 106 pupils in 2006, but the roll had declined to just 21 when the school closed for the year in December 2010. It was officially closed on February 28 this year.
A community hui in April this year, set up to discuss moving Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Otepoti from Fairfield to the former High Street School premises in Dunedin, showed parents, prospective parents and other people from the Mornington community supported the initiative.
Principal Amiria Stirling said the move was inspired by a board of trustees consultation of the Maori community in Dunedin last year, which found many parents were not sending their pupils to the Fairfield school because it was not as accessible as many in the community would like.
It was too far away for some, and not on the way to work for many parents, she said.
High Street School has three classrooms remaining, after the removal of two relocatable classrooms which were transported to Christchurch to aid the Canterbury earthquake school recovery programme.
However, the board was confident the premises would provide more than enough space for a growing roll.
Ministry of Education regional manager, Southern, Ray Webb said the ministry had now completed a feasibility study on the kura kaupapa to see how the move might affect the school financially and how it would affect the pupils, among other factors.
"We expect to be able to provide TKKM o Otepoti with a response by the end of this month.
"The ministry will communicate the decision directly to the board of trustees."
Board chairwoman Nicky Frederics was excited by the news.
"We hope the decision is fruitful. We've got our fingers crossed ..."
