Print shop closing opposed

Press, 31 August 1984, Page 5

Print shop closing opposed

A petition is being circulated in Aranui expressing “utmost dismay” at the decision of the Aranui High School’s board of governors to close the school’s printing workshop. The board has ordered it to be closed by September 10, but Mr Chris Pryor, the man who has been behind the enterprise since 1973, says he will not budge, and is busy rallying support from the community to try to get the board to give him a reprieve. The board made the decision in June, heard submissions from Mr Pryor in July, and confirmed its decision that month. The board ordered the print shop closed after receiving reports from the Education Department, the Labour Department, and the fire-safety office of the Ministry of Works. The Labour Department said that persons under 15 were barred from the area under the Machinery Act

provisions; that persons over 16 needed to have “adequate and appropriate training” in the use of machinery, that guards needed to be fitted to three of the machines; and that safety provisions for lead workers had to be complied with. The Education Department said that no distinction was set between a classroom and a “club” where a staff member was working with pupils and that the Factories Act had to be complied with, because goods were being produced by mechanical means and were being sold. The Ministry of Works outlined a number of measures that would have to be taken to improve the building before it could permit printing work to resume. Mr Pryor is head of the mathematics department at the school. He first took an the small print

shop with one platen press in 1973, and as his interest grew he expanded the print shop until now it has equipment installed which is insured for $22,000. It includes a linotype machine bought from the Christchurch “Star” when it converted to cold-type printing processes, motor-driven platen presses, and a three-tonne Kelly cylinder press. The board says Mr Pryor has failed in the past to follow the board’s directions in supplying an inventory of equipment and in removing some of the equipment to reduce congestion. Mr Pryor replies that the directions have been vague and that he has done his best to follow any instructions. He says the board has also declined an offer by Mr Pryor and his supporters to raise the $3500 necessary to pay for an extension to the existing building and for the wall lining needed as protection against fire. . The board’s chairman,

Mrs Sally Radcliffe, said that there were matters other than the departmental reports which were of concern to the board, but she preferred not to go into details. Mr Pryor says he has nowhere to put all the machinery if it is removed, and that it would cost him too much to have to bring in a crane to lift out the heavy machinery. “I have no intention of moving it out,” he says. His vision is for the printing shop to be the base for a liberal studies group as it has been in the past, providing a variety of skills and work experience. He also sees it serving pupils from other schools. Mrs Radcliffe says that if the print shop were to be made available to liberal studies classes the school would lose teaching space and teaching time and the board could not justify that to the heads of departments. No decision had been made

on the future of the print shop building. “We are all sorry to see it go but it has to go because of the safety aspects and the fact that we have little control over it,” said Mrs Radcliffe. She said that a staff subcommittee was looking into the possibility of setting up a small print shop controlled by a committee of management and with an administrator to run the club. But this does not satisfy Mr Pryor. “The board’s vision is much narrower than mine. Theirs is a few platen plate presses and a bit of lead. If you do that you will kill it (the project) because no pupil will be interested in it just for that,” he says. He says his petition forms will be gathered next week and presented to the board, but Mrs Radcliffe says that she is very doubtful that a petition will change ;the i board’s decision.