Retain Hagley High — report
Recommending that cuts be spread is the crux of a report by the Christchurch Secondary Schools Council on the building programmes of city schools. the report’s release yesterday ended speculation that it recommended closing Hagley High School to achieve cuts imposed by the Government last year. Instead it recommends achieving the cuts by spreading them over Hagley High Schoo], Christchurch Boys’ High School, Christchurch Girls’ High School, Avonside Girls’ High School, and Papanui High School. The report says cuts are justified because of falling
school rolls, but it says that schools should share their effect. It recommends that all Christchurch schools stay open, and that Hagley’s role as the principal provider of second-chance education should be encouraged and safeguarded. The Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) asked for the report last November. He sought the council’s advice on how the cuts, imposed by the Cabinet works committee, should be allocated.
The works committee last September made the cuts a condition for approving the rebuilding of Christchurch Girls’ High School. The cuts meant that building programmes covering the next three years had to be changed to save 800 “pupil places.” In other words, enough buildings to house 800 pupils intended to be either built or replaced had to be cut from the programmes. The Minister has had the council’s report since May 5.
The council’s chairman, Mr D. J. Clarke, said last evening that the Minister had so far given no indication whether his decisions would accord with the council’s recommendations. “No conclusions have been reached yet,” he said. The report’s main recommendations are: • All Christchurch secondary schools should be kept open until 1992. • Christchurch Girls’ High should be rebuilt to a roll of 650 pupils.
• Hagley High School should stay open for a role of 350 adolescent and 200 adult students, and it should have a zone encompassing the whole city. • Christchurch Boys’ High should be rebuilt to a roll of 1000 pupils. • Avonside Girls’ High School should be rebuilt to a roll of 875 pupils. • Papanui' High School’s building programme should be limited to allow for a roll of 1125 pupils. Although its recommenda-
tions would only save 650 pupil spaces the report says this will be “substantial and will ensure the continuance of balanced educational facilities within the city.” Plans to rebuild Christchurch Girls’ High to a roll of 800 are now being drawn up. The plans would have to be changed if the report’s recommendations were adopted. As a correlate the report recommends re-examining the school’s present site instead of planning to build on
the Flemings Mill site on Deans Avenue. Although it was rumoured that the report recommended closing Hagley High School it actually expresses support for the school throughout. - “We have recognised that Hagley High provides a worth-while educational amenity for the city," Mr Clarke said. The school’s principal. Miss R. E. Heinz, said she was pleased that the report backed the school but that backing was no guarantee of the school’s survival. “We still do not know what the Minister will decide," she said.
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Press, 2 June 1982, Page 1
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513Retain Hagley High — report Press, 2 June 1982, Page 1
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