Government rejects Queenstown Charter school
Plans for Atlas High School have been rejected by the government’s Charter School Authorisation Board.
The not-for-profit, fees-free secondary school was slated to open in Term 1 of 2026, with an initial intake of 100 pupils. Some 213 families had expressed an interest.
But its backers were told late last month that the application had been unsuccessful.
Daniel Cooper, one of the driving forces behind Atlas and its would-be principal, says the reasons for the rejection are vague.
"The Charter School Board asked for applications that met their criteria, and we demonstrably exceeded them on every
front," Cooper says.
"We are now asking the Board to show us exactly why Atlas was rejected, and have received no further communication as yet."
Charter schools are another type of state-funded school, providing educators with more freedom to choose their curriculum and how the school operates, with the expectation they achieve high standards. The concept has been reintroduced by the Coalition Government, offering 10-year contracts, with options to extend.
Cooper is principal at Queenstown's Liger Leadership Academy, which will close at the end of 2025. Atlas planned to build on the Liger curriculum, which had been gifted by Liger founders Trevor and Agnieszka Gile.
The Giles even offered to contractually guarantee the school's success and reimburse all public funds if performance, attendance, or enrolment metrics were not met, removing financial risk to the taxpayer.
The school was also backed by 45 South (Formerly Wakatipu Community Foundation). The Atlas school roll would be capped at 220 students after three years, with the main aim of providing an alternative to the ever-growing Wakatipu High School.
"We submitted an exceptional, low-risk, high-impact application that solved an urgent local need and offered a blueprint for the future of education nationwide," Cooper says.
"We are making our full application publicly available so that New Zealanders can judge for themselves. You can visit our website www.atlasqueenstown.org to see our vision.”
Charter School Authorisation Board Chair, Justine Mahon, says the Authorisation Board received 52 applications this year to establish new charter schools.
"It's a great response and highlights the commitment to provide different educational opportunities for our country's young people," she says.
“The Board was impressed with the calibre of the unique proposals it received. The Board set a high bar for applicants to succeed and went through a robust process to make its selections.
"This meant difficult decisions had to be made and the Board acknowledges there will be some disappointed applicants.”
