New schools for northern ward
August 12, 2019•200 words
We need schools in new developments before existing local schools run out of room
As our population grows in Porirua, we’ll need more of the social services we expect in our city. One of them is new schools.
The Plimmerton Farm development will add another 5,000 people to that part of town, which will included a few hundred school-aged children. What schools will they go to? The surrounding primary schools — Plimmerton, St Theresa’s, Pukerua Bay and Paremata — don’t have the room to take another couple of classrooms each without giving up even more space on their grounds.
It takes the Ministry of Education two years from the time it decides to build a school until it hands the keys to the community. And it takes a few years to make the decision to build the school. So, the sooner the community can start to plan for new schools, the better. The Council has a role in this — bringing the community, Ministry of Education and other people together to start the process. So, when the community has grown to a size that it needs a new school, it has one.