BROOKLYN SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 6

BROOKLYN SCHOOL

PARENTS'' COMPLAINT "IN A DISGRACEFUL STATE" The accommodation conditions at the Brooklyn School were-complained of by ii deputation, from the school committee, largely supported by householders of the district, which waited 'on the Minister of Education (tho Hon. R. A. Wright) on Saturday afternoon. The Minister advised tho deputation to confer with tho Education Board. The chairman of tho committee (Mr. J. M. Russell) described the conditions' at the school as bad, and asked that in fairness to tho staff and the children a definite assurance should- be given that the position would be remedied as , soon as possible. Tho present cottage accommodation was a disgrace to the school and the city. The old wooden part of the infant school received practically no sur the rooms being damp and musty and totally unsuited' for small children. Tho property on which the cottages stood had been purchased years, ago as part of the playground extension scheme, and were never intended for prolonged use as schoolrooms. Mr. B. Semplo supported the chairman 's remarks, stressing tho need for proper accommodation for the education of children. CHILDREN KEPT AT HbME. , Mr. J. H. Whittaker, an ex-chairman of the school committee, and Mrs. Bentley, one of the parents, also spoke. Mrs. Bentley said she had never known such disgraceful conditions, and described tho rooms as more hovels. Things were so bad that parents wcro keeping their children at home. Tho fact that her own child had contracted scarlet fever and subsequently had become paralysed and deaf she attributed to the dreadful conditions at the school. "GOING INTO DECAY." "I hear the same story in all parts of New Zealand," said the Minister in replying. "I am getting quite accustome3 to such complaints. I do not say they are unsound. It all arises from the fact that most of these old schools were built about the same time, and as a result are all going into decay about ■ the same time. To attempt to rebuild them all in two or three years would-be almost hopeless. I could not get the neceesary finance to do it." Mr. Wright admitted that the infant rooms "did . not owe the country anything," and complimented the people of the district on having raised £1200 for the improvement of the playground. Replying to Mrs. Bentley, he said that so far as ho was advised, there was no more sickness at Brooklyn School than in any other school of tho same size. The Education Department had no control over the order in which tlie schools were classified for reconstruction by the Education Boards, in which they were vested. The Minister of Education had no. voice in the matter either. Nor could he make a definite promise that ■he would consult the Wellington Board. The committee, as a first move, should ask the board to place their school on the urgency list. He understood that at present Brooklyn School was fairly low down on the list. He therefore suggested that the committee should deal with tho Education Board in the matter. He admitted that the speakers had not exaggerated the conditions at tho school/ which ho himsolf had attended as a boy. , • . Mr. Russell said that tho Education Board had refused to receive deputations from any school committees, as tho 'country school committees would be at a disadvantage. Mr. Wright suggested that a .fresh letter be sent to the board^ adding that if they did so ho would, do what ho could to assist them. In the absence of the member for the district, Mr. R. M'Keen, M.P., who was out of town, the deputation was introduced by Mr. P. Fraser, M.P.