Capital works projects at integrated schools

Introduction

The purpose of the protocol is to ensure capital works (provision, improvement and replacement of property) undertaken at integrated state schools comply with Ministry of Education standards.

There are two types of standards: minimum and maximum. Minimum standards are compulsory, maximum standards are not.

The Ministry needs to know, as the Government department administering the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 and the Education Act 1989, that integrated state schools are compliant with minimum standards, and the quantity of integrated property does not exceed the maximum standards.

Minimum standards

In terms of Section 40(2) c and d of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 integrated state schools must meet minimum standards.

The Third Schedule of a school's Integration Agreement lists any physical work required to land and buildings at the time of integration to meet minimum standards (Section 40(2) c of the Act).

Subsequent to integration the Minister of Education can require a proprietor to undertake other work to ensure minimum standards are maintained (Section 40(2) d of the Act).

Minimum standards have a qualitative definition. That is, property that is subject to an Integration Agreement must be safe, in a fit state of repair, and compliant with all statutory, regulatory, and Ministry design standards¹.

Compliance with these minimum standards can be achieved by proprietors and Boards of Trustees ensuring such things as:

• Buildings with Compliance Schedule features, in terms of the Building Act 1991, have a current Building Warrant of Fitness;
• A hazard management process is in place based on the Ministry's Health and Safety Code of Practice²;
• All structural additions and alterations are designed and certified by appropriate professional consultants, eg: engineer, architect, and such certification is provided to the Ministry
• A cyclic (10-year) Property Plan has been adopted and is being complied with³.

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Maximum standards

Maximum standards determine the quantity of property needed for a school as guided by the Ministry's accommodation formulas, eg School Property Guide (Primary).

Although proprietors can provide more or less property than the formulas determine (as long as safety standards are not breached and the curriculum can be delivered), the Ministry will not integrate more property than that stipulated by the formulas.

Similarly, Boards of Trustees may alter the quantity of property with the approval of both the Ministry and proprietor but such property is not eligible for integration. Other conditions also apply⁴.

Only integrated property generates maintenance funding from the Ministry, through schools' operating grants.

Private schools integrating into the state system must negotiate a quantity of property that does not exceed the accommodation formulas. Such property is listed in the school's Integration Agreement

Subsequent to integration any changes to the quantity of property through, say, a capital works project or demolition, must also be guided by the accommodation formulas and agreed to by the Ministry as a Supplementary Integration Agreement.

Such agreements should be signed after the project has been completed when final dimensions are known, although, in the case of additions, it is advisable to obtain the Ministry's approval in principle prior to work commencing to ensure the new property will be integrated.

Additions, alterations and demolitions that affect the quantity of property must be regularly advised to the Ministry through its Property Management Information System (PMIS) Update Forms⁵. The PMIS drives maintenance funding calculations.

What is recorded in the Integration Agreement must match the data recorded in the PMIS.

Attendance dues

Attendance Dues may be charged by proprietors in terms of Section 36 of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975. Such attendance dues may be used for any work required to meet minimum standards, or for any other purposes as defined by Section 36(3) of the Act. However, attendance dues cannot be used to fund work that will cause a school's property to exceed maximum standards (Section 36(4) of the Act refers).

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Footnotes

¹ A full list of Ministry of Education design standards is available from its district offices.

² The Board of Trustees shall be responsible for ensuring that school property and management systems comply with the Health and Safety Code of Practice for State Primary, Composite and Secondary Schools and any relevant health and safety legislation. In particular, the Board shall identify, eliminate, isolate and/or minimise hazards that arise at the school and shall notify the proprietor of the hazard and action taken using the procedures in the Health and Safety Code. The proprietor shall be responsible for work to remedy a hazard where that work is capital in nature.

³ Under the Integration Agreement the Minister has an obligation to the proprietor to maintain the school premises. The Minister and proprietor have agreed that this obligation be discharged annually in two ways: By the Ministry funding the Board of Trustees to undertake a certain part of the maintenance; and

By the Ministry paying a sum of money to the proprietor to undertake that part of the maintenance not carried out by the Board of Trustees. A 10-Year Property Plan records in an integrated manner planned expenditure by both the Board of Trustees and the proprietor.

⁴ The Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 and the supporting integration agreements with individual proprietors require the proprietor to be responsible for capital works. Proprietors cannot contract out of this responsibility to Boards of Trustees or any other third party. This is especially important in the case of Boards as they are agents of the Crown for property purposes. In this context there is a risk that the Crown will be meeting the cost of the proprietors responsibilities and since the Act requires the proprietors to own or lease their school property, the ownership of the assets funded by the Crown, through a Board, will subsequently vest in the proprietor.

However, Boards of state integrated schools can fund and own capital works under special circumstances. If the state integrated school can demonstrate that such expenditure will not adversely affect its maintenance responsibilities, in the context of a 10 Year Property Plan, or adversely affect any other operational costs of the school that are funded by the Crown then it may finance the capital works.

Such approval is conditional on:

• Legal documentation recording the building as a Board owned asset, and not the proprietors;
• Compliance with all other requirements such as Section 67 and 69 of the Education Act 1989;
• The work not discharging the proprietor from completing the same project if recorded on the third schedule to the school's Integration Agreement; and
• The completed building not being eligible for integration as it is not a proprietor owned asset.

⁵ The process for updating the PMIS is: At the completion of a project the proprietor will provide to the local district office details, as per the PMIS Update Forms and a CAD drawing of the school; and the district office will update the PMIS and confirm to the proprietor that the school's records have been updated within one month of receiving the change details.