HUTT CENTRAL SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 8

HUTT CENTRAL SCHOOL

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—May I be permitted to object to the removal of the sun-rooms at present situated in the Hutt Central School grounds. These rooms were given to the children so that they might go to school and learn under the best conditions, and now the children are sent back into a building which Mr. Fraser himself condemned as shocking. Under the present circumstances the children of Masterton must have something done for them in a hurry, but what of our children in the meantime? They cannot go into the new school, because there is no room, but can any sensible mother be expected to allow her children to remain indefinitely in a cold, leaky, badly-

ventilated building with no decent heating arrangements? As the Masterton school has been condemned as unsafe, and Mr. Savage has made it quite clear that he has the interests of the younger generation at heart, why does he not build another "Social Security Building" in the Masterton school grounds? Surely what has been done once can be done again for so worthy a cause.—l am, etc., M.E.

The rooms referred to are portable classrooms which were'placed at Hutt Central School long before the main building was vacated and were provided with the object of replacing temporary accommodation in a local hall which was unsatisfactory, it is explained. The new schol was not erected because the old one was condemned. A new site was obtained and a new school erected, but there were important reasons which caused the Department to limit the accommodation. Eventually a new infant block will be erected. The portable buildings were removed to Masterton to meet an emergency, a brick and concrete building having been condemned on account of earthquake risk. This action was taken by the board after consultation with the Hutt Central School Committee and the headmaster, and was approved of by the Hon. Minister of Education and his Department. The two rooms to be occupied temporarily in the old school are not cold, leaky, badly ventilated, and without reasonable heating. As the rooms in question will require to be used for some time the board is taking steps to brighten them by painting the interior and this work will be done during the May vacation.