JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 229, 28 September 1926, Page 5

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

A LITTLE UNEASINESS iias the scheme been pruned? MINISTER TO BE 1NTERVIEWED. A somewhat mysterious meeting of nicmbprs o-l Scho-ol C'ommittees affected by the estahlishm-eiit in Blenheim of the proposed Junior bligh Sch-o-ol was held at the Eduear tio-n Office last evening. The mystery of the meeting was apparent in the fact that n o oue seemed to he j a-ware oi the r-easons for which it had been called, while the conveners, iGioe-ver they were, did not- reveal tlie-mselves. However the meeting serve-d a useful purpose, for various matters whicli have given some of the committees in charge- of primary ^choo-ls uneasiness were ventilated. tlie tone of the meeting was quite iavorable to the p-rosecution of the-Junio-r High Schoo-1 scheme, which is now w-ell afoot, b-ut the fear was expressed that, following upon the control o-f the Departm-ent falling into t-he hands of the Hon. R, A. VV 1'ight, the original promises made hy the Hon. Sir James Parr when Minister had be-en somewhat pruned, Micl tlie indications were that the nistrict was not to receive just what »ir James Parr and his Departmental officers had proinised. It was de-ci-ded that a deputation should wa.it upon the new Minister to-day to ask for a reass-urance on this. matter, it bemg evident that if such an assuranoe is forthcoming, the commit-te-es will loyally support the Junior ]gh oohool scheme. Ihere was a goocl attendance of cemmitteemen, Mr 1>. McCallum being voted to the- chair. Mr McCallum said the meeting was quite an informal one and, he ook xt, was being held in a gpod sp-int, He himse-lf thought of nothlng but the welfare of the ohildre-n. ( tear, Hear). There had been some wiid rumors flying ro-und) as to the purpose of the meeting, but, so far as he was concerned, and so- far as others to whoni he had1 spoken were concerned, th-ere were 110 ulterior niotives, and th-ere was no individual at t-he back oi the meeting. , The whole truth was that some of the oclioo-l ('ornniittees were feeling a ittle bit perturb-ed. It might be that the-y had not- bee-n taken fuliy into the eonfidence of the authorities, or it might be that they were uncluly susp-icious. For instance, he had understood that there were- to be expe-rt teachers at tlie Junior High btehool, and he wished. to know if the ones who had been appointed we-re experts. Ihen they wanted to know something a-bout tlie- matter of transpo-rt o-f country children to the High S-chool. Th© whole trouble was that the country committees appeared to be a. little in the dark. There was a pause a-fter the chairman's introduct-ory speech, no-one seemimg inclined t-o se-t the- b-all rollmg. "Is every oue satisfied with the .Junior High Seliool as it ;s p-ro-ceedingf" inquired the ohai nan. "If so, there is no further business." Mr E. J. King: I woukl like to know what you know about it, see--ing that you are one of tke head men. The Chairman : I don't 1 now anytliing.

Mr King: Then who sjled the meeting? The Chairman: I take it that if the meeting is not satisfied v. ith the Junior High Sch-ool scherne we will approa-ch the Minister, and if everything is all right, well nothing more remains to be done. T wiant tO'Say that I am not against t-he Junior High Scho-ol, but it seems to me that there are difficulties, at least in r-e-gard to th-e transport of children to tlie High Sch-oql. Mr T'. C. Pricliard : We had a guarautee that the children would t© b-rouglit in . Mr W. D. Sanders: — t our n.eetiiig at Springlands we - ere led to belie-ve that specia-lists we-re not being appointed to the teaching staff, as was promised, and we were also toki that tlie transport scheme hau b-een modified. 'I want to know where this inforniation eame from. The Chairman: So far as I am concerned. it is a matter of obse-rvation. 1 naturally thought that liighly-.s-alaried teachers would be appointed, but tliey are receiving less than our primary school teachers, so the supposition is tha-t they are not special-ist-s. We may be walking in the dark, but there seems to- be sonie--thing wron,g' when good teachers to whom I have spo-ken are not applyin,g for the positions because tlie salari-eis are insuffieient. It may: be all right,* but we want the autiiorities to take us into their confkle-nce. Som-e of us feel that we may be being expei'imented with in an attempt to red uce the cost of the -scbe-nie. The chairman appealed to Mr W E. Gascoigne, as a member of the Ooll-ege Board, fo-r infor-mation a-s to hovv the new teachers had been selected, but Mr Gascoigne had no information. He stated that t-he appointments, he understood, had been made- by the Principal of the Cbl-le-g-e, in consultation with a small co-mmitte-e. -Mr W. W. Tylor said he really didn't know why the- meeting had b-een called. He agreed that to som-e extent they were- walking in the -dark, but he remembered a meeting not so long ago- which una-ni-mously told tlie Government they were in favor o-f a Junior High Schbol. It seemed a bit- strange that no-w the teachers had been appointed and1 a tender acce-pted for the building, th-e-y should be asking for eiili-ght-ennient. It seemed strange that they had not found it n-ecessary to seek this- enlightenment earli-er, and it. se-em-ed rath-er lat-e to c-onie at the eleve-nth hour with doubt 3 about the scheme. All matters of doubt should have hen threshed out at tlie previous meeting. He urged the meeting not to be swayed by rumors and suppositions or it would m-ak© it-self a laughiirg stock. Mr A. H.ood said the previous meeting liad favored a Junior High School as outlined by the Minister and two officers of tlie Department. Part of tlie scheme was tlie appointment of expert teachers, the consoli-datio-n o-f: the remaining schools and, last, but not least, tlie transport question. Tlie whole trouble was that up to the present- the School Committees- were in tlie da-rk on thes© matters. A number o-f the teachers in the primary -scihools had received notice that they should ap-p-ly for transfers to other scliools. Th-ere ha-d been no mention of the transport question, and no mention af consolidation,. All these tliings . liad made them fe-el a little une-asy, and he took it that the meeting was bein-g held to- take steps to secure ; the desired information. The scheme which had been outlined at .

tho previous nieetihg was a splendid -oue, and they were sur-ely not going to take .anytiiing less. The scheme niust go forwa-rd a,s originally outlined or it was 110- go-o-d to the district. He suggested a deputation to th-e Minister to ascertain tlie- position defmite-ly. Mr King said he was- under the impression that consolidatio-11 was to be brought into eff-ect after th-e High S-chool came into use. Mr H. J. Staoe, speaking for1 the Marshlands school, said his committee opposed the scheme, tho-ugh it agreed that it was a fine thing for schools neare-r Blenheim. As far a-s Marshlands was concerned, four or five or six children would have to be brought daily to Blenheim, and the parents objected to their being transported and to providing the bett-er clothing which would be nec-essitated. They also opposed tlie idea of closing the outlying schools on account of the hardship 011 the younger children. It was all very well for young children to be carted about tlie country in the warmer months, but it was a different story in wet weather, particularly as they would have to wait at • c-ross-roads or elsewhere for the conveyance to- come along. Replying to .a question by the chairman, Mr Stac-e said that corresponcLence which his committee had received showed that there was no question of the outlying schools being kept going. There was to be 110 option in the matter ; th-ey were to be "eonsolidated" — -in other words, cl-osed.

Replying to a question, the chairman said the Education Board lyiew nothing of the matter. Mr S. Harris (Tua Marima.) -said his committee was o-f the same opinion as Marshlands. The parents did not like the system of travelling on the train, and he felt that tlie district a-s a whole was too scattered for the system to be a success. The Tua Marina Comniittee was unanimously against consolidation or closing th© school. Mr J. H. Sutherland said he could not see the difficulties in re-gard to transport. His idea was that Marlborough was fortunate in securing the Junior High School and should grasp its opport-unity, if it was for the betterment of education. Mr Sanders said he understood that the purpose of th© meeting was to appoint a committee to. secure an assuranoe from the new Minister for Education that the scheme- was. the same as that outlined by the- Hon. Sir James Parr when he was in charge of the Department. The chairman, and Mr Hood agreed, the chairman stating that he was not against the Junior High School but me-rely wished to be assured that the scheme had not been amended. Mr Dobson said he could not see that there was any thing but hearsay in t-he uneasiness being felt in regard to the schem-e, and cohsequently he could not see the use of discussing the matter further. Mr L. C. Bart-lett said he thought the ehi-ef objections to the scheme w-e-re in regard to the matters of transport and consolidation. He agreed that the best plan would be t-o- ap]K)iiit a committee to wait on the Minister for definite information. They could argue the matter all night an-d never get any further ahead. Mr W. E. Gascoigne expressed surprise that the convenors of the meeting, whoever they niight- b-e, had1 not liad som-ething better than hearsay to put before the meeting. At the same time, in view of tlie n-ew Min-ist-er's talk in regard to eoonomy, he thought it would be as well to a-sk him for an assuranoe that the scheme was going through as proposed in the davs of Sir James Parr. This Avas the- only way to settle all doubts. Possibly the objections cvere merely shadowy, and the meeting would find that it had been beating t-he air. He t-ook it that the district was in favor of the Junior High School as originally proposed. (He-ar Hear). He concluded by nfoving that a deputation c-onsisting, as far as possible, of tlie chairmen of the various committees should wait on the Minister. Mr Dobson askecl Mr Gascoigne, as a me-mber of the College Board, to mform the me-e-ting of wliat the Board knew of tlie development of the scheme, and Mr Gascoigne eonfessed that tho-ugh a member of the Board, he knew 110 more than anyone else in the room, exce-pt that certain work was going 011 at the Cbllege, and a contract had been provisionally let for the new structure. Mr Tylor se-condcd Mr Gascoigne's motion, which was carried unanimously after a little further discussion. .In consultation with Mr IV. J. Girling, M.P., who arrived- at this stage, the deputation was arranged fo-r 4 p.m. to-day at tlie Education Offio®.