Trustees ask ministry to close Rangataua School

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 545, 19 July 1994, Page 1

Trustees ask ministry to close Rangataua School

In an unprecedented move, the Board of Trustees of Rangataua School have requested that associate education minister Lockwood Smith, give his consent to close the school. Principal Alison Thomas and Board chairman Jane Zweibruck told the Bulletin that a Board closure is in the best interests of the school' s remaining four pupils. By asking the Ministry to close the school the Board of Trustees is ensuring that they have some input as to what happens to the school' s assets, which includes two computers and software. Closure by the Ministry, which they said was a "definite possibility", would mean those assets become the property of Government. Awaiting approval The Board is awaiting Ministry approval to close the doors on the grounds of the current small role. The future enrolment prospects for Rangataua School look equally bleak, they said. Very little community support for the school is one reason given for the decline. Of the relatively small number of permanent resident families in the settlement there are around 20 primary school-aged children - the bulk of whom commute to Ohakune to attend school.

Those in attendance at Rangataua are members of just two families. The move by the BoT coincides with the Government' s July re-financing period, when funds are allocated to schools according to role numbers, and "serious questions were going to be asked." With the dwindling role, the Board no longer had the means to maintain the school building to Ministry standard, according to BoT chairperson, Jane Zweibruck. "We were receiving around $30,000 with a role of 12 ... with less pupils the income is smaller, but the maintenance costs stay the same," she said. The decision to ask for a Board closure has come after lengthy meetings with the Ministry and School Trustees Association and all -available options were explored. Rangataua School' s role has been on a downward spiral since the late 1940's. In its hey-day in the 1930's it numbered around 170, when there were four classrooms. When destroyed by fire in July 1 947, temporary classrooms were set up at the Presbyterian Church and the Rangataua Hall. The opening of the new building - rebuilt with the present three classrooms - was delayed due to a raging polio epidemic.