Classrooms or staff rooms?

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 11

Classrooms or staff rooms?

Opinion differed at a, jneetirg of the Canterbury; Education Board as to I whether older classrooms or! j-aff moms at bigger schools’ r ere most in need of im-l provements. Under the present cuts in* educa- ; on spending, neither would be eligible for much' ■tteiri but both “were ver.' much in need” of it,* said the board’s chairman' (Mr i'. S. Avers).

Mi D. L. Waghom said that such work would ndtj cost much more than ! amounts the board was already getting, but disagreed with Yr R. .1. Cowell that class-oom- were more in' need of remodelling than staff rooms in some bigger! schools which had outgrown* facilities. Mrs Cowell said that a> teacher spent the greater part of his time in the class-1 room. Improvements to the • staff room would be of! benefit only during the small: amounts of time teachers l spent there. Planning of the proposed Form I to Form 7 high school at Leeston may now begin, the board was informed. A fetter from the Minister of Education (Mr Gandar)

said that planning could proceed and that finance would be considered on the Department of Education’s receipt of plans. Mrs N. J. Johnson suggested that finance might not be available after the board had “taken the trouble" to prepare plans. One statutory provision under which the board worked harked back to the days of the pony post, said Mrs Cowell, during discussion on another topic. the regulation was archaic and needed looking into, she sad, but Mr R. W. Sansom sa>d former attempts at revision had been unfruitful

The board at present must wait seven days from the time voting closes to the counting of votes during election of members to the board. This used to allow the pony post time to cover the distance from the place of posting to the board’s offices. Modem services had made the regulation unnecessary and inconvenient, Mrs Cowell said. The board adopted a recommendation to the Education Boards’ Association that vote-counting begin three days after voting closes.