THE SCHOOL APPOINTMENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2019, 18 June 1885, Page 2

THE SCHOOL APPOINTMENTS.

■ (To the Editor.) Sir, —I will endeavor in this letter to give a clear history of the l causes which have led up to the present quarrel among the members of our School Committee overtiie appointment of teachers. When the Education Board finally decided to open the side-school, our local Committee at one of its meetings. considered the question of appointing a mistress. One would have thought this a very easy matter. Miss Keeling is a certificated teacher, her work has always been com-' mended, and her many years of successful ; teaching at the local public school rendered her claim to. promotion so obvious, that a body of disinterested men, working only in the interests of education in Masterton, could not possibly have overlooked it. However, there were several applicants for the mistress-ship of the side school, Miss Jupp and Miss Reese amongst the rest; one side wanted Miss Jupp, and the other wanted Miss Reese appointed, and Miss Reeling's claims | were entirely ignored. . A strong undercurrent working behind the scenes, placed the Central Board in possession of what was going on, and that body, to mark its disapproval of such uufair conduct, and at. tlio same time to administer a severe rebuke to our local Committee, appointed Miss Keeling to be mistress of the side school, The Committee took the castigation kindly, because there was still the vacancy of Infant Mistress, vacated by Miss Keeling to be filled at the public school, and both sides feared to offend the central board by at once complaining at the coinmitee not being "consulted" before the.appointment was mado. When, however, Miss Jupp was appointed by the Board, the Hogg party were wrath beoause their candidate had been passed over, They had nothing to gain by further silence, and a special meeting was called to con-firm-Miss Jupp's appointment, and the Hoggitea determined not to confirm it; but, owing to the absence of Mr Woodroofe, they failed, and Miss Jupp'sappointment was duly, confirmed. This, so far as the law is concerned, legally constitutes Miss Jupp infant mistress to 'the public school, and, if dismissed, she can, of course, claim damages for wrongful dismissal . Now, with reference to the respective merits of the applicants, I believe Miss Reese is a certified teacher, but Miss Jupp also possesses credentials of a very superior order from the Australian colonies, and it is very well known that such credentials should be, and indeed are, always considered equal to colonial certificates, and a certain period js allowed to elapse before it is compulsory for them to pass the necessary- oxamiiiav tions, It is not, perhaps, generally' known that Miss Jupp was trained with her sister, Mrs Francis, in Kindergarten schools at home, and that fact would weight with a deliberating body in selecting the candidate for ono local school, lam&c,, Parent, [We think our correspondent has misapprehended some of the faots of the case,—Ed.W.D,]