9 Nov 2011

School rejects ministry's quake minimum

4:58 pm on 9 November 2011

Wellington East Girls College will not accept a Ministry of Education proposal to strengthen its earthquake-prone main building to 40% of the national building standard.

The main building and the school's hall were evacuated in July after it was revealed the buildings met just 17% of the standard.

Principal Sally Haughton says 40% is the bare minimum needed to make the building legally safe.

She says the school's board wrote to the ministry last Friday saying it has a bottom line of 67%, which is widely considered to be engineering best practice.

Ms Haughton says the ministry has asked for a meeting with the school, and she hopes the issue can be resolved then.