Government to negotiate state integration for Wanganui Collegiate

The government has decided to negotiate possible integration of Wanganui Collegiate School into the state sector.

Board of Trustees chairwoman Tam Jex-Blake said the decision was not a guarantee that integration would occur. A similar application of Wanganui’s St George’s Prep School was declined.

Collegiate applied for integration in late 2009. Since then the school has been challenged by declining student enrollments as the economic recession forces families to reconsider the rising costs of private school education (see last week’s NBR story).

State integration would see the government paying teacher salaries and funding any building maintenance. The schools are allowed to charge some fees and get to keep their special character but must adhere to the state curriculum.

A spokesman for Education Minister Anne Tolley said the minister must consider several factors for integration including: 

• whether the designated special character is genuine, meritorious and in some way unique and different from that existing in other schools,
• whether the benefits of diversity provided by this school, will outweigh the increased costs of managing and monitoring the addition of the school to the state school network,
• whether the demand for places at the school will continue,
• the quality of curriculum delivery and management capability;
• that any safety issues have been addressed, including the pastoral care of students; and
• the nature of the land tenure and the state of the buildings.

Ms Jex-Blake said the school looked forward to working through the issues with education officials and the minister. 

“While there is much work to be done before concluding this process, the board is nevertheless pleased that the Minister has agreed that the school can enter the third stage of the negotiation process,” Ms Jex-Blake said in a statement.

“Wanganui Collegiate is one of the oldest schools in New Zealand, having been established in 1854. It is the only seven day co-educational boarding school in the North Island south of Hamilton. It is also a major contributor to the Wanganui economy.” 

Last year Collegiate merged its St Georges preparatory school with the main campus due to the declining primary student roll. 

“We are not surprised that the Minister has declined the application for St George’s, and had contemplated this was a probable outcome,” Ms Jex-Blake said.

“Wanganui is currently over- serviced with schools from years one through eight.”