Source: Radio New Zealand
Schools are having to spend thousands of dollars replacing carpet, curtains and other items contaminated by play sand containing asbestos. Supplied
A school principal facing a $90,000 bill for cleaning up asbestos-contaminated sand says she urgently needs more detail on a new scheme for financial support.
The Ministry of Education is setting up a scheme in January, to provide money to schools which were having to spend thousands of dollars replacing contaminated carpet, curtains and other items.
The ministry said in a bulletin that a “fixed sum of money” had been set aside for the “one-off, time-limited” support scheme.
It advised schools affected by the issue to complete a survey by Wednesday 17 December, describing the financial impact of the asbestos-contaminated sand.
Only schools “experiencing financial difficulty” would receive reimbursement for asbestos-testing costs.
Early learning services were not being included in the support scheme, the ministry said, as they were privately owned entities co-funded with government subsidies and parents fees.
Lynda Stuart, principal of Auckland’s May Road School, and member of NZEI Principals’ Council, said she welcomed the announcement of a support scheme as a “move forward”, but said it lacked key details.
Stuart said she still did not know how much funding support was on offer, or whether she would qualify.
“It worries me, that it’s one of those things that will just drag on, and we will be being asked to pay invoices – and in fact I’ve already had to start paying invoices, and those funds will be out of the schools’ bank accounts.
“And what does that mean for 2026?”
Stuart said the asbestos-saga had been an “absolute nightmare” for her school, estimating the total costs of testing, removal, and remediation could be around $90,000.
That included removing carpeted tiles and wall coverings, as well as replacing any furniture with fabric – and employing extra teacher aides to deal with the disruption of temporarily closing the school, she said.
“We just don’t have the funds for this, any spare money we have, we actually put in to providing staffing for the school.”
Stuart disagreed that only schools in financial stress should qualify for asbestos testing costs.
The testing so far had cost the school about $6000, she said.
“I just think all of the costs should be covered, it should be recompensed. It’s through no fault of the school, and it’s one of those things that’s happened…it’s really tragic actually. It’s just come from left-field.”
Stuart said she was still awaiting a definite answer on her school’s insurance claim, but had heard from other schools their claims would not be accepted.
She said “it wasn’t good enough” that she was going into the summer break without knowing if she would receive any financial support or how much.
“It needs to be – this has happened – and we’re [the ministry] going to take the hit on it, and we’re going to attempt the recover the money from those who caused the issue. I know that is complex and hard but the Ministry of Education and government will have the legal teams to do that, schools don’t have that support.”
Funding level still unclear – ministry
The Ministry of Education’s Helen Hurst would not say how much funding would be available for schools, until it worked out how the funding would be distributed.
“We will report on funding allocation decisions when these have been made.”
Hurst said the details of the support scheme were being designed now, and the voluntary survey of schools was to give ministry information on the scale of the financial impact.
Asbestos testing costs should generally be covered from a school’s operational grant, and that was why it was outside the scope of the scheme, Hurst said.
“It is good practice that schools maintain a level of available operating cash to meet unexpected costs should they arise.”
Hurst said it was early learning services’ responsibility to manage unforeseen operational costs given their funding arrangements.
“We also expect that early learning services have business continuity insurance arrangements in place to manage unforeseen events.
“We understand that this situation has created challenges for many early learning services, particularly those operating on tight margins or within the not-for-profit sector.
“While the ministry is not providing financial assistance for asbestos remediation works in early learning services, we will continue to provide guidance and support to help services navigate this issue.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
