SOUTH DUNEDIN SCHOOLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19257, 22 August 1924, Page 10

SOUTH DUNEDIN SCHOOLS.

PROBLEM OF INCREASED ACCOMMODATION. THE DEMAND FOR HIGH SCHOOLS. The problem of providing increased school accommodation for the boys aiili girls of South Dunedin was the subject of an important report and discussion at the Education Board meeting yesterday. On behalf of a sub-con diet, of the board appointed to "" ~ t> the matter, the chairman, Mr ,J. ,aco, reported that after giving the school requirements of the Flat consideration, the committee recommend the hoard to make application to the department for authority to erect a now school at St. Kilda to accommodate 400 pupils. At present there are 359 scholars on the rolls of the Flat schools (excluding Kensington) for which no accommodation is provided except by gymnasiums, in which seven classes are now being taught. Mr Wallace, commenting on the report, said the board had this section at St. Kilda, and he did not think they should let it ‘"cat its head off” in taxes. It was equidistant from the St. flair, Macandrew Road, and Forbury Schools, and these were the schools most ia need of relief. By erecting a school on that site they would relievo all three schools. The board had always had as its policy that 670 was an ideal roll number for a school. Fortuny had 724. That was too large a school, and even with the new addition at Forbury they would lie a room short of one room for every teacher. At St. Clair there would be no escape now but to have two classes in the gymnasium, nicy should make an urgent, claim on the department to authorise the building of a new school on the site at St. Kilda to accommodate at least 400. If the board could carry out its own ideas it would establish a District High School at Macandrew Road. He thought that that was to come. It would relieve the Flat and would relievo the High Schools here, and would probably be the means of giving a High School education to some children who at present did not receive it because of the distance they would have to travel.

Mr Livingstone: What about a Junior High School ? The Chairman : I would prefer a District High School, but I would bo quite prepared to go for vj Junior High School. The Hon. D. T. Fleming said that gome years ago the board had endorsed the idea of a Junior High School out there. It would relieve the schools the chairman had mentioned and also relievo the extraordinary inflow cf boy s and girls to the High Schools here. The educational authorities would have in the very near future to provide additional accommodation for secondary education, It might be that the time had arrived now when the board might consider the whole question of the establishment of a Junior High School at the south end of the city. It would take two years at all events before they could have a new school out there.

The Chairman said the committee had lightly touched on the matter of the Junior High School the previous afternoon, but they were faced with this position that only one High School was authorised for towns of this size and that one was already established in Auckland.

Mr .Fleming said that if the response was such as the department hoped the Junior High School was going to become an integral part of the educational system, and in their future building policy they should keep that in view.

The Secretary read a telegram to the chairman from the Minister of Education stating that as a public mooting in Oamaru had approved by a majority of four to one the proposal to establish a Junior High School there he had decided to carry out the proposal. He was obliged to the board for its fair-minded and impartial attitude in the matter. It was decided to receive the committee’s report, and Mr Fleming then moved : “That in view of the possibility or necessity of some means of secondary education being provided at South Dunedin any building operations should have in view the needs of the future with regard to secondary education and that the chairman and secretary should confer with the Minister of Education on this matter.” Air G. Livingstone seconded the motion. Mr R. H. Todd said he was inclined to think they should go on building on the new’ site at St. Kilda. Apart altogether from Junior High Schools the new school would be needed. There was a great deal of land to be cut up out there, and there would be a very large population on the Flat He believed they would need all the accommodation they could possibly get. Mr G. W. Wood drew attention to the need for securing a school site somewhere between Musselburgh and Anderson’s Bay. The motion was carried.