SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAMME

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25916, 23 September 1949, Page 8

SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAMME

COST THIS YEAR £316,000 NEW BLOCK OPENED AT SPREYDON

Building undertaken by the Canterbury Education Board this year will cost £316.000. Fifty-nine major projects are completed or in progress, including remodelling and additions to classrooms at 17 schools costing £86,900; rebuilding of four schools costing £37.000; and seven new schools costing £148.000. Last year’s school building bill in the area was £250.000. These figures were given yesterday afternoon by the chairman of the board (Mr A. E. Lawrence) when he opened a new block of classrooms at the Sprcydon School, close to the Halswell road entrance. Mr Lawrence said this building cost £8794. This would show that the Education Department and the Education Board were making a determined effort to overcome accommodation difficulties, he continued. Building took a big part of the Education Department’s grant. Parents would appreciate the shortage of classrooms which made it necessary to refuse five-year-old children admission to some schools. It was plain that provision must first be made for those over the compulsory education age of seven years. Mr Lawrence also assured parents that the board was pressing for the restoration of swimming baths and the erection of new ones. Swimming instruction was an important function of the schools and the provision of baths should be given high priority. Mr R. J. Cooper, chairman of the school committee and a member of the board, said all concerned were gratified with the new block. Other speakers were Mr F. G. Armstrong an Education Board member for the school’s ward; Mrs J. Johnston, president of the Parent-Teacher AssociaA ‘ H - Marker, president of the Old Pupils’ Association; Mr C. L. Harper, headmaster; and Mr F. W. Gurnsey, the former headmaster. The new block has three open-air classrooms facing the sun. a headmaster’s office, staff room, cloakroom and storeroom.