The Ministry of Education has been promising to build a new primary school next to Mt Aspiring College for the past two years, but there has been no word on when it will be built.
Wanaka Primary is starting to bulge at the seams and there is no room for expansion on the site.
The school's roll is at its highest in a decade, according to ministry roll statistics.
Since March 1, 1998, the numbers had grown from 215 pupils to 376 pupils on March 1 this year - a 75% increase.
The school's roll had received a significant boost of 38 pupils since last year, and Dr Bamford said the roll growth was expected to continue.
‘‘By next October, we are looking at a school roll of 520 kids We've got no storage facilities. In the past, we've had to store school resources in farm barns - that's how bad it is. We may have to start teaching children there, too, if classes keep growing at this rate.''
Dr Bamford said that while she was excited about the growth in the community, she was starting to feel the pinch of crowded classrooms. The school had 17 classrooms - one of which was used as a resource storage room
There were 32 pupils in the school's year 5 and 6 classes and about 27 pupils in the middle years, she said.
The school was struggling to provide cultural activities, such as choir, kapa haka group and school band because there was no school hall, she said. School concerts and functions were being held at the Wanaka Presbyterian Church.
‘‘We have to have school assemblies outside on the lawn and, if it is windy or raining, we can't have them.
‘‘The school has to book the Presbyterian church a year in advance so we can have assemblies in the winter.''
Board of trustees chairman Pete Bullen was ‘‘incredibly frustrated'' at the situation because there did not seem to be any movement by the ministry to resolve the problem.
‘‘No-one knows when the new school will be built because the Ministry of Education, Cabinet and Treasury need to sign off on the proposal and that hasn't happened yet.
‘‘We were hoping to have the school built by the end of next year. If they sign off before the end of March, it could still happen. But it's at the whim of the politicians at the moment.''
The proposed school would have 22 classrooms and cater for up to 540 pupils.
On average, the school's roll was growing about 12.5% a year and during the next decade, the roll was expected to reach 750 pupils, he said.
To help control the distribution of pupils in the Wanaka area, Hawea Flat and Holy Family schools have established enrolment schemes. The ministry recently requested Wanaka Primary do the same.
Ministry property group manager Paul Burke said the school was using board-owned extra classrooms to manage the projected growth this year. Mr Burke was unable to say when construction of the new school would start.
