School steps up its fight

Press, 5 August 1983, Page 1

School steps up its fight

A demonstration in Cathedral Square, meetings with politicians, a sleep-in at the school and a newspaper advertisement are some of the means Four Avenues school may use to fight the school’s closing. A list of possible actions drafted by pupils, parents and teachers at the Gloucester Street school includes obtaining legal advice through the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association and sending letters to the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington. Legal advice about a newspaper advertisement outlining the school’s case would also be sought, said the chairman of the “protest” committee, Mr Neil MacLeod, a teacher at the school. Fund-raising had been started to pay for the advertisement. A letter would also be sent to New Zealand’s other State alternative secondary school, the Metropolitan City School in Auckland, which was set up about the same time as Four Avenues.

“If we’re being closed they must be under threat also,” said Mr MacLeod.

The school had still not been officially notified in writing of the proposed closing, he said. Parents and pupils will meet at the school this evening to decide on further action. A delegation of teachers and pupils will meet Mr Geoffrey Palmer, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member of Parliament for the elector-

ate which the school is in, tomorrow.

A demonstration in the city had been suggested and might be held next week, said Cr Don Rowlands, who is also a teacher at the school. The pupils had suggested a sleep-in at the school later in the year.

The committee had discussed following up a radio talkback show on the school’s future with an item on the “Fair Go” television programme.

The school director, Mr Graham Mundy, will meet the secretary of the P.P.T.A., Mr Graham Gillespie, in the next few days to discuss support of the school’s actions. In the meantime the most important thing was to maintain the morale of the pupils, said Mr MacLeod. All were upset by the announcement that the school would close, particularly a group of senior pupils who had been at the school only a few weeks, said a parent and part-time teacher, Mrs Glenna Sutherland.

“They had only just settled into the school and most don’t know what they will do. At least one girl has said she will leave.” Mrs Sutherland’s son, Duncan, aged 17, is a sixth former at Four Avenues. He is seeking an apprenticeship but if he does not get one would probably go to Polytechnic rather than Hagley High School. “He had planned to come

back to do a bursary year but that option is not open now,” Mrs Sutherland said. It was important to realise that Four Avenues was one of only two State schools to be closed, and the last was about 15 years ago, she said.

Mrs Sally Gabrick has had three children attend Four Avenues. The youngest, Heather, aged 14, is still a pupil. Mrs Gabrick said she had enrolled her daughter at Hagley for next year but in the hope that Four Avenues would continue as a separate organisation in 1984.

The alternative school had offered her children the chance to develop social and academic skills, she said. As a trained school teacher she believed Four Avenues offered a less “stressful” education than the ordinary system. Her children had not gone to Four Avenues as dropouts from other schools. They had benefited from the warm personal atmosphere at the school and a range of experiences.

Mr MacLeod said that one of the biggest problems had been telling people what the school was all about. “There are a great number of misconceptions about the place. Unfortunately only now are we getting publicity. Too many secondary pupils in Christchurch don’t know about the alternative open to them.”

A past pupil of the school, Jason Darvey, aged 18, described the decision to close the school as “rotten.” It had a great deal of support from the community, he said.

The telephone at the school had not stopped ringing since the announcement of the decision on Tuesday evening, said Cr Rowlands. Staff had also had calls of support. Mr MacLeod said that the decision had upset many Sle because it was obvii a financial rather than an "educational one. The school was being closed on the ground that $lOO,OOO was too much to spend on reno-

vating two buildings. “The school is the people here, not the buildings. They are irrelevant,” he said.

Estimates received for work on the two inner city wooden houses, including work required by the health and fire departments, had been between $20,000 and $30,000, not the $lOO,OOO the department had said. Suggestions that the parents raise the money for renovations or that the

inner city properties be sold to provide the money to move the school into main-tenance-free premises had been ignored by the Minister, he said. He was unsure how effective the steps the school would take would be in preventing its being closed at the end of the year. “We are not very likely to change Mr Wellington’s mind but we will not give up without a fight,” he said.