Doomed school to take fight to Beehive | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Kawerau Intermediate supporters plan to board a bus to Parliament next week in the fight to keep the school doors open.

At a community meeting on Monday night 200 people expressed sadness and anger over a Ministry of Education decision to shut the school at the end of the year.

The trip to Wellington was one of a number of steps supporters intended to take in an effort to get Education Minister Anne Tolley to change her mind.

A suggestion was made to ask famous past students of the school, including New Zealand's Next Top Model winner Danielle Hayes and Health Minister Tony Ryall, to lend their faces to the cause.

On Monday night, principal Daryl Aim asked the audience if they agreed with the ministry decision to go with Option C - to close the school - with a show of hands.

Not one hand was raised.

But, when asked if they wanted to fight for the school, every hand in the crowd went up.

"You have shown you want me to fight for this school and that's what I intend to do," Mr Aim said.

Intermediate Board of Trustees chairman Trina Hayes, Danielle's mother, said democracy was needed.

"We need those people making the decisions to know what people here want," Mrs Hayes said.

Chairman of the Kawerau Central School Board, Boyce Kingi, told the audience the ministry had not listened to concerns.

"The vote was unanimous; four of the six schools voted for Option B, the council supported Option B, 2600 people put their names to a petition for Option B and they don't hear us," Mr Kingi said.

Labour List MP Steve Chadwick has waded into the debate, saying the decision to close three of the schools represented a misjudgment which placed cost cutting above quality education.

"Bowing down to cost-cutting measures without considering what is best for the children and families in Kawerau is typical of this Government's short-sighted approach to education," she said.

"I wrote to Minister Anne Tolley after visiting all schools and early childhood education centres in Kawerau and suggested a staged approach to ease any transition.

"I raised the concerns families had voiced around the minister's approach, which had unnecessarily pitted one school against another."

The trip to Wellington has been planned for Monday.