Former Christchurch School Board Chairman Calls Ministry of Education ‘Toxic’

By RNZ’s Phil Pennington

The Ministry of Education went against expert advice at an earthquake-damaged Christchurch school, ran into spiraling problems and costs, and was obstructive and misleading, documents show.

The Ministry attacked the school leaders when they asked questions and was forced to apologize three times.

Mike Lay, chairman of the Christchurch Girls’ High School board of directors from 2013 to 2018, says the ministry’s “toxic” culture is not changing and is warning other schools to learn from the long and unfinished drama.

“We tried to express our concerns on many occasions and they just weren’t listening,” Lay said.

“Ten years after the earthquake, and the concerns we raised at the time, it became a reality and has resulted in what I estimate has been a waste of $ 10 million in taxpayer money.

“Where is the responsibility?”

Despite the budget skyrocketing 50 percent, from $ 27 million to $ 40 million, the main block of 35 classrooms in the 10th decile state school, while it’s certain, is not finished.

The ministry messed up the job, and when Lay tried to hold him accountable, he says they persecuted him.

“In front of the staff, they called me a health and safety risk.

“Just because I was holding them accountable, they really, really doubled down.”

A senior ministry manager told Lay that one of his employees had filed a formal complaint against him, when they had not.

“That is the larger problem,” he said.

“If any school speaks up, it certainly makes it very difficult. They have the power behind them and they select them as individual schools.

“That is where schools need to work more collectively.”

All of Lay’s problems have been investigated, including by the Ombudsman and the Office of the Auditor General, the ministry said.

He declined an interview, instead, in a short statement, focused on the school getting a new arts center and gym repaired, with $ 25 million spent so far.

“There is more to do and we are in regular contact with the school,” said Kim Shannon, director of the Educational Infrastructure Service.

Girls’ High principal and current board chairman Julian Bowden did not comment except to say they had positive expectations of a meeting due to take place on November 4.

The ministry has completed 58 out of 115 schools under the 10-year Christchurch school rebuilding program that began in 2013; is overdue, although the ministry still says most schools will be ready by 2023.

“Some projects in the larger high schools have already started, but will continue beyond 2022/23 as they have been organized so that the schools can remain fully operational,” Shannon said.

A midpoint review in 2018 found that the budget of $ 1.13 billion was reduced by $ 150-300 million, and increased to $ 1.38 billion.

Cost explosions and “woefully incorrect” ministerial correspondence characterized the Christchurch Girls structure, said Lay, a chartered accountant who runs his own firm in Leeston.

Documents including emails, letters, a ministerial memorandum and the Ombudsman’s finding support his version.

They show that the ministry did not provide key information to the school reconstruction team:

• that the ministry aimed to strengthen the main block to 44 percent of the earthquake code (or New Building Standard, NBS), not the 67 percent that the school said was promised.

• that the consultants advised the ministry not to start work at the end of 2017; He did it anyway, and the problems and costs skyrocketed.

• who applied for and obtained an additional $ 13 million.

“They are quite concerned that they have wasted taxpayer money,” Lay said.

The project manager, RDT, had told the ministry in March 2015 that opening the main block and replacing it would cost millions less than to strengthen it, plus it could be rebuilt on more stable ground away from the river.

Geotechnical consultants believed the land was so poor that opting for the hold and repair option would result in the “worst case scenario” of a $ 34 million bill.

However, days later, the ministry told Lay: “The ministry’s perspective remains that the repair option in the main block is the most viable and profitable option.”

The main block went still.

This meant that the school’s replacement performing arts center had to be built alongside it, also on the less stable land.

Lay believes this added $ 3 million to that project, which was completed in 2017, when the goal was 2015.

Bureaucrats were making property decisions that they weren’t qualified for, Lay said.

“Back in 2013 … we said that your budget will not cover what you tell us you are going to do.”

“They started to notice” and looked for “shortcuts” with the NBS 44 percent target, he said.

Minutes from a school meeting with the ministry in December 2015 read: “CGHS believes the original budget foundation was flawed.”

The ministry acknowledged that a three-month deadline to repair the main block “was a risk” but that it could manage it, according to the minutes.

The school “did not consider they were aware” of NBS ’44 percent decision, the minutes added.

“We discovered this through contractors,” said Mike Lay, “who alerted us to the fact that they had been instructed to design to a lower standard.

“There, a battle began between our school and the ministry to make sure we were going to get a building that met 67 percent of the code.”

At its core, it was a one-size-fits-all school rebuilding approach that did not sufficiently take into account what individual schools needed, Lay said.

An inflexible approach to financing school property was criticized in a 2017 Office of the Auditor General report.

The school insisted on 67 percent and won, but this outweighed costs.

However, it was a disruption for the students, that was the killer, Lay said.

The board expressed “extreme concerns” in early 2017 over the ministry’s track record and statements about delays, in the “riskiest phase of reconstruction” due to disruptions.

Later that year, the ministry wanted to move on, even when experts told it not to start strengthening the main bloc, anticipating major problems.

The ministry went ahead anyway.

“They ignored the advice of the consultants and kept building,” Lay said.

“They were never transparent with us about the fact that the consultants had advised against it.

“They had an obligation to inform us of that, but they never did.”

Documents show that the ministry assumed the school would not want a delay that would mean that builders would not be able to take advantage of the 2017-18 summer vacation.

Work started, but by April 2018 it was completely restricted outside of school hours, to avoid disrupting classes and slowing things down.

Costs skyrocketed. A premature halt was called. The main block, although safe, remains unfinished.

The ministry had sought and obtained $ 13.7 million in additional funding in April 2018, inflating the budget at this school alone by 50 percent.

But he didn’t tell the school this.

The Ombudsman, in May this year, described what happened when Mike Lay asked if he had requested more money: “Initial responses from the ministry were misleading and seemed contradictory,” said the Ombudsman, adding that the staff was not dishonest.

“He continued to dismiss their concerns. While the Ministry has now explained the situation, it has not apologized for the confusion caused by its statements.”

Now you have.

Lay has received three apologies from Secretary of Education Iona Holsted, the last one in June of this year.

She said they should have explained to her that the consultants told her not to start construction.

“I also apologize for the confusion caused by our funding application statements,” Holsted wrote.

“In both situations we should have done a better job of explaining these situations to you up front, and I regret the way we handled the concerns you raised about this.

“I recognize that these failures on our part have caused him great concern and frustration for several years.”

The ministry is now closing these matters.

In the midst of the swing in 2018, the ministry told Mike Lay that a staff member had filed a formal complaint against him; in this email he uses the words “bullying”, “harassment” and “harassment”.

But it was not true, there was no formal complaint.

Education Secretary Iona Holsted apologized but insisted her staff had genuine concerns about her behavior.

It had all taken its toll, Lay said, in him, on the board, in the director at the time.

“To be fair, Iona Holsted has apologized … she has acknowledged some of those issues, but it comes at a price.

“I’ve heard stories from other schools recently, and I think these are the exact same problems I’ve been through,” the board and the principal.

“It’s repeating itself. So yeah, you get an apology, but what change has been made?

“I see behaviors and a toxic culture that exists within the ministry.

“Nobody asks for heads to roll, but they have to be prepared to change their attitude.”

Lay in June of this year tried to raise the problems of rebuilding schools with the Minister of Education, but Chris Hipkins told him no, “the issues that concern him are operational.”

In the 2017 election campaign, Labor promised to form a new government group to help rebuild. It has not, but told RNZ the concerns had been addressed.

The ministry told Hipkins in December 2017 that the “complete” redevelopment of Christchurch Girls under the Rebuild program “is likely to be completed in 2018-19”; Twelve works had been completed and four projects remained to be executed.

The ministry told RNZ that its Christchurch school rebuilding had so far spent $ 758 million of the $ 1.3 billion.

It would provide one of the “most modern school networks in the country, with 2,400 renovated and new teaching spaces, and more than 80 percent of these will be innovative learning environments.”

The program aims to:

• construction of 13 new schools on new sites

• rebuild 10 schools

• remodeling of 92 schools in 10 years

“We expect to complete projects in 17 schools over the next 12 months,” said Kim Shannon.

There were 31 projects in the design and planning stages, 19 under construction and five in the tender.