WAIPAWA HIGH SCHOOL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 66, 21 February 1938, Page 2

WAIPAWA HIGH SCHOOL.

THE NEEO FOR INCREASED ACCOMMODATION. DISCUSSSED BY THE BOARD. A letter from the AVaipawa District High School Committee drawing attention to the conditions under which the staff and pupils of the secondary division are working came before the Education Board at its meeting on Friday. “The Board’s urgent attention is called,” stated the letter, to the conditions prevailing in the hope that improved conditions will be provided. The present building is a four-roomed structure suitable for a two-class school, with a cookery room and science room, both of which are unsuitable for ordinary class teaching. The roll number thi year is 88. The use of the cookery room as a classroom is not at ail satisfactory. Moreover, on one dav a week the cookery room is used Units proper purpose, and all the book.-: and equipment used by the pupils have to he transferred elsewhere. Further, the plan of the building iquite wrong, as it faces the wrong way, and some of the rooms are very cold in the winter.” Supplementing the representation of the Committee Mr Critchley, ward member, said the conditions were in no way exaggerated. Hie had made a visit of inspection and found the staff working under very real difficulties. The cooking mistress had to deal with a class of 35 in a room totally inadequate in accommodation and equipment, and the science ma ter was similiarly placed. Apart from these disabilities the lay-out of th school was totally unsuited to modern requirements. Mr Cuthbertson urged that the lime was opportune to urge on the Minister the need for consolidation between AA'aipawa and AA’aipukurau, with a view to securing a school which would meet the needs of both districts. Mr Critchley agreed that the portion should be definitely finalised. The Minister of Education had, somemonths ago, made a definite promise to visit the district and confer with parents and others interested in educational matters, but up to the present nothing had been done in the matter. AA'ith a view to meeting the position created by the large influx of pupils in the secondary department he suggested that when the change-over of the primary division to the new school takes place, about the end of the present month, arrangements could be made to use, temporarily, the old building for the secondary overflow. The architect was instructed to carry out such alterations as are necessary, pending the investigation o! the question of a central high school.