Parents, teachers and pupils of a Porirua private school have held a meeting to discuss the sudden announcement their school is set to close.
The board of Samuel Marsden School in Whitby announced on Monday they're planning on closing down the school, without consulting the school community.
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"We got the email on Monday night and that was that," head boy Thomas Couchman told Newshub.
"We spent the whole day crying on Tuesday with our teachers," student Thomas Taylor said.
Now they're all banding together, to fight to keep their school open no matter what.
"The unity in this group is absolutely amazing," Duncan Biss, who has two sons at the school, told Newshub.
They were told on Monday night Marsden will shut in December, leaving 170 pupils and 20 teachers needing to find a new school.
"People found out over Facebook. There were students that didn't even get an email, parents that didn't even get an email," said former head boy Kian Knight.
"What they've done is bad, but the way they've done it is absolutely distraught, my daughter was in tears," said Kian's father, Wayne Knight.
"We just don't know what to expect next term," Couchman said.
The years 7-13 co-educational decile 10 private school has been open for 15 years, a sister campus to the prestigious Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in Karori.
But after a review of costs, revenue projections, and future spending needs the board says it just wasn't sustainable to keep the Whitby school open.
"They've known longer than this. And they should've told us," Wayne Knight said.
Marsden principal Narelle Umbers told Newshub consulting parents on options to stay open would've been misleading, and that the school community was advised as quickly as possible after the decision had been made.
Students say it's put even more stress on them at a crucial time in their lives.
"Being year 13, I've had about three internals due this week. Luckily the teachers have postponed them for the holidays but it's still a very stressful week," head girl Tannith Potgieter said.
"I don't know how I'm supposed to go into those exams with a positive mindset," Taylor said.
The girls have been offered a place at Marsden's all-girls Karori school - but many want to stay put.
"I don't even want to think about going somewhere else, because this is what we are," year 12 student Siobhan Mackay-Freeman said.
And the boys have been left to find alternatives, with many enrolments already closed.
"[Hutt International Boys School] is really hard to get into for boys, they've got waiting lists 200-odd strong," said Biss.
This afternoon the board offered the school community the option to purchase the school back from Marsden - but they have until July 26 to come up with a plan.
Newshub.
