Ministry apologises to high schools over quake risk communication

The Ministry of Education has apologised to two Wellington schools that claim they weren’t informed of buildings at risk of failing in an earthquake.

Onslow College Principal Sheena Millar was notified of their library being prone to damage in an earthquake when Wellington City Council sent a letter asking for an update on the situation it had been notified of previously.

“I think I felt a little bit sick,” she said.

Buildings rated less than 34% of the New Building Standard were considered prone to damage in an earthquake.

“Opening a piece of mail from the Wellington City Council saying, ‘Have you done the work on your earthquake prone building?’ It's sitting at 15% [New Building Standard rating] and not knowing about it was an awful situation for anyone to be in," Ms Millar said.

"I think that continued to how my board felt as being in charge of the wellbeing of everybody here.”

The Ministry strengthened the building to 50% of the NBS last year, which the school was also unaware of and not consulted on.

Wellington Girls' College principal Julia Davidson found out part of one of their classroom blocks was an earthquake risk in April when they requested information on the business case from the Ministry of Education for their school to be rebuilt.

The Ministry of Education has been aware the building was a potential earthquake risk since they completed a review in 2020.

"That's not good enough, but also how many other schools are affected by this?" Davidson said.

"We've all got the safety of our kids and staff at the core of our being so we need to know and we need to be told honestly what's going on."

She advised other schools to carefully check their property ratings.

Under health and safety law, school boards were responsible for the safety of all people onsite.

A engineering assessment recently commissioned by the school aligned with an assessment recently completed by the Ministry of Education, showing the two top levels of the building had a rating of 15% of the NBS.

"The risk of a one in a thousand year earthquake probably isn't that high in the next four or five months, if one was to occur, there is a really severe risk to life and so we're not prepared to consider that," Davidson said, of the school board's decision.

Wellington Girls' students were remotely working Tuesday and today, while school staff planned where 360 students and staff that used the building space will be moved to.

Ministry of Education head of property Sam Fowler said both schools were informed of the buildings' earthquake risk in documentation, although the schools refuted this information was communicated clearly, if at all.

The ministry's guidance to Wellington Girls' College was that the block could continue to be used while remediation was planned or carried out.

Davidson said the ministry has said the building would be strengthened by 2025.

"We don't have a lot of faith at the moment in the ministry's timelines.

"Nothing else that we've had happen onsite has gone to time so we are concerned about that," she said.

Fowler said the ministry has apologised to both schools over what occurred.

"It is really important that we provide clear and accurate information to these schools to enable them to make informed decisions and if there has at any point been a lack of communication, and I would certainly recognise in these instances that communication could have been better, that is an issue that we need to take up as a Ministry and improve on," he said.

Fowler said ministry staff would be reminded of the importance of communicating with schools face to face, over the phone and in written correspondence to ensure they were well informed.

When asked whether he was aware of any other schools being in the same situation, Fowler said it was his expectation that where there was an issue identified, staff were engaged in informing schools.

"If there are any schools that are in that situation where there is information relating to the property that hasn't been provided to them that's an error rather than intent and we'll be making sure that we follow up and any information is provided to those schools," he said.

The principals of Onslow College and Wellington Girls' College were concerned the ministry only initiated further investigations, that were recommended years ago for potential earthquake risks onsite, after they contacted the ministry seeking information this year.

In the case of Onslow College, these assessments were for other school buildings that the school had sought independent engineering advice on, with the guidance being the buildings were safe for occupation.

"We just don't feel confident that would have happened in a timely manner if we hadn't found out about this one," Onslow College principal Sheena Millar said.

"How do you have a collaborative relationship with people and work towards positive results for young people if you're not being shared the information and if you're not really being treated with respect as you're moving forward?"

Fowler said the Ministry shouldn't take action as a result of escalation by schools.

"We'll be responding to engineering advice in terms of the need for those further seismic assessments."

He said a targeted seismic assessment was carried out at Wellington Girls College to understand the need for investment and the "right approach for the future of that building".

The Ministry of Education has confirmed there are 29 state school buildings that are prone to damage in an earthquake, out of more than 15,000 buildings across the portfolio.

"We need to make sure we're achieving value for money across all of our investments so we'll have to consider what the right approach is, whether that's investing in existing assets and strengthening them or replacing them," Mr Fowler said.

No decision has been made on the future of the vulnerable building at Wellington Girls' College. The school principal's view is a replacement building, not remediation, is the better financial decision in the long-run.

One student, who wanted to remain anonymous, told 1News students have endured years of learning disruption because of construction and demolition of other buildings onsite. She was concerned the latest situation would cause further disruption for students, especially those with higher learning needs.

"The classes having to be stopped, because you physically cannot hear the teacher over the jackhammer-like noise so close, because the buildings were conjoined, that it was really, really hard to focus, because that noise was so close to you, and you couldn't ignore it," she said.

"At one point, we even had earplugs."

The student said children shouldn't have to try learn in a "construction zone".

She was concerned how learning from home disruption would affect students, particularly those studying NCEA.

"We are losing our school.

"I find this incredibly frustrating especially when I see the campuses of other Wellington Schools. Just look at our brother school Wellington College; they have three fields. We have none," she stated in an email.

"The lack of responsibility and action taken by the MOE is costing students their education," she added.

MBIE's building guidance, which the Ministry of Education referred to, stated a low rating indicates a heightened risk to life in an earthquake but didn't mean the building was "imminently dangerous" because earthquakes were a "low probability".

"In most cases, seismically vulnerable buildings can be occupied while you plan, fund and then undertake seismic remediation work," the document states.

The guidance also pointed out it was best that building occupants were communicated with openly and honestly about what information was known and what's not known, the decision making process and what measures were being taken to manage the risk.