On Wednesday the 6th of July, the Board of Trustees met to discuss the findings of an independent engineer’s assessment on the structural condition of two key Wellington East Girls’ College buildings – the Main Block and the School Hall.

This report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education was provided to us at the end of last week, and followed the Wellington City Council initial evaluation process which identified the Main Block and School Hall at WEGC as potentially earthquake prone buildings under the 2004 Building Standard.

Of particular concern to the Board was confirmation by the independent engineer that the Main Block is in fact considerably below the standard required to withstand a moderate earthquake, and will require considerable strengthening work to be carried out.

After a great deal of discussion the Board agreed that, in the interests of safety, we will take the precaution of evacuating all staff and students from the Main Block. All teaching, learning and administrative functions will be relocated until the building is strengthened in accordance with the Ministry of Education property guidelines.

This decision will take effect from tomorrow, Friday 8 July and means that we are faced with the challenge of finding appropriate teaching, administrative and staff areas within a very tight timeframe.

For more information :

Information Sheet- Earthquake Strengthening 

Earthquake - Prone buildings 

 Letter to the parents - Earthquake strengthening