Maniototo Area School celebrated the turning of the sod on their new school building last week, Thursday, September 10.

School principal Joe Ferdinands said the school’s “mighty Kowhai class” turned the ‘ceremonial sod’ and Central Otago District mayor Tim Cadogan said a few brief words to those assembled. 

“It is this group that will benefit the most from our new buildings in the next 13 years,” Joe said. “So it’s only right that they feature prominently today.”

“With all the restrictions and uncertain times that we live in, we decided to have a very small in-house ‘turning of the sod’ ceremony.”

Joe said the demolition of the old Technology Block has been completed and the whole community is excited about the start of the construction of the new block.

“Our five-year-olds did the honours since they will be the ones to benefit the most from our new school rebuild,” Joe said. “Our school Kapa Haka group sang the waiata.

“The rebuild of Maniototo Area School involves the demolition of all the blocks, except for the gym. 

“Some of our buildings date back to 1937 or thereabouts. It was definitely time for a whole new rebuild. The Ministry has allotted around $11 million for this project.

“Our challenge at the moment is to keep school going while building at the same time. We are hoping that the entire project will be completed by early 2022.”

Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan was present at the Maniototo Area School's sod turning ceremony. 

Present too were Tim Davis, the Project Manager (TBIG), Mark Garden and Michael Strange, architects from Baker Garden Architects, Jeff Golden, site manager from Breen Construction, and the Board of Trustees of Maniototo Area School. 

“We also would like to acknowledge Carlos daCosta, the Project Delivery Manager from the Ministry of Education and Melissa Jarvis who worked with us in the early stages.”

Breen Construction is the chosen builder for the project, with a strong presence in the community. 

“We are thrilled that a local company has been selected to build the new Maniototo Area School buildings,” Joe said. “All the best to the Breen Team as they begin the construction. 

“On behalf of MAS I would like to thank Breen Construction for providing one student every year with work experience and a thousand dollar scholarship each year. 

“And we are delighted to be able to contribute to the local workforce this way.”

“Thanks also to our Board of Trustees who has worked tirelessly throughout this enterprise. 

“And to our staff and students who already are quietly managing some difficult settings, knowing that soon we will have buildings to boast about.”

The ceremony ended with a waiata from the school’s Kapa Haka group.

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