Photos courtesy of Green School
<p>The Oakura-based school, rocked last week by the resignation of founding principal Stuart MacAlpine, has been at the centre of controversy after Greens co-leader James Shaw announced the school had secured almost $12 million in government funding.</p>
<p>The Associate Minister of Finance announced in late August the funding as part of $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund.</p>
<p>The Green School said the expansion project would create 200 jobs and deliver $43 million to Taranaki but the funding announcement was met with widespread criticism from schools, unions and the Greens&#8217; own members.</p>
<p>Mr Shaw has since apologised for backing the grant, saying it &#8220;was an error of judgment&#8221;. and he is now pushing for the money to be given as a loan so it&#8217;s paid back in full</p>
<p>&#8220;My personal view is that the best way to do this is for the support for the Green School to come in the form of a loan rather than a grant,” he said.</p>
<h3>Green School chief executive officer Chris Edwards said this was already partly the case.</h3>
<p>“Just to be clear, never, ever was this a 100 per cent grant – not at all,” Mr Edwards told RNZ.</p>
<p>“The application was for a 25 per cent grant, the rest was a series of loans.</p>
<p>“We’re still waiting for information from the Crown infrastructure partnership as to the nature of the fund. We’re waiting for further information as to what that will look like.”</p>
<p>Finance Minister Grant Robertson has however cast doubts on the ability of the government to alter any pre-existing arrangement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I know that Minister Shaw is seeking to come up with another plan, but I haven&#8217;t heard back from him about what that is, but as I say, I think it&#8217;s an issue of good faith,” he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the government says it&#8217;s going to fund something, we have to go through with that even if one of our partners might regret it.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile the school, which opened in February and currently has 55 students and a capacity for 120, is in need of a new principal after Mr MacAlpine announced his resignation.</p>
<p>In a statement the school said he had been “headhunted by one of the most prestigious global foundations in the world” with more details to follow.</p>
<p>The statement said he would remain at the school at the end of the year and would continue to be involved in the future development of the school’s curriculum.</p>
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