CENTRAL SCHOOL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 50, 29 January 1932, Page 6

CENTRAL SCHOOL

NEW BUILDING READY.

FOUR WOODEN CLASSROOMS

Four new wooden classrooms will be available for pupils of the Central School when it reopens on Monday after the summer vacation. The new building, erected on .that side of the grounds facing Aroha Street, is complete and ready for occupation. The fitting of the interior has been finished and all that remains to be done is to apply another coat of paint outside. The structure is quite an ornate one, embodying all the latest principles of school building technique. The work on this building was first undertaken on December 12. and has been carried rapidly to completion, in fulfilment of tho assurance given that it would be ready when the schools resumed. It has accommodation for 240 pupils, and will afford much needed relief from the congestion and inconvenienoe created through having many pupils in temporary premises. Among the attractive features of the now budding are the new style windows of the easy folding type. These provide a clear vision and admit sunlight and ventilation to practically the full length of every room on the eastern side. A central heating system has been installed, and the latest methods of cross-ventilation with easily manipulated windows, axe employed in the building. The interior is beautifully finished with heart rimu. while the weather-boarding is of heart matai. • Bricks removed from the main school proride the, foundations. There are four rooms, each 26ft by 21ft 6ins., and they, open on to a corridor which runs the full length of tbe building on the Aroha Street side. There is a cloakroom in the middle of the school, which has three exits. Those from each end of the corridor open on to a sloping ramp, which obviates the danger of steps in an emergency. The timber used in the building is all New Zealand-grown. The joinery was done in Feilding and tbe plaster and ceilings were made in Palmerston North..

The infants’ department building, closely adjacent, which was renovated extensively, last year, has received a coat of paint. , j WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION. '

Meanwhile the extensive alterations and reconstruction of the main brick school bave been pushed on with the utmost expedition, and have reached such an advanced stage that yesterday it was found necessary to dispense with the services of six employees, mainly labourers. The building has been well stripped and is now but a skeleton of the pretentious • school wheih existed prior to the commencement of the work. The whole of the demolition is finished, with' the exception of minor work on , the walls, and all the heavy brickwork has been completed. * There , remains considerable work to be done, however, and it is anticipated that it will be six weeks or tvfo months before the remodelled building is ready for occupation. Activities are now being centred on the roofing, which will have a 2ft 6ins overhang, making all, the buildings on the site of uniform appearance. Strongly tied together, reinforcing bands of steel cover every brick wall, both outside , and inside. Three classrooms have been made along the back of ; the school on the former ground floor where there were only two before. The 'stairways at each end of the school have been removed and the old cloakrooms transformed into classrooms. The effeot of. this is to make available.,three further rooms on this floor, cornpensating to some extent for the removal of the top storey. With the four rooms in the new building, this will make an additional seven. i,.' f '

Completely stripped, . the , .assembly, hall to-day lay open to the sky, while outside were some of the six massive steel girders, each weighing , four tons, which had been removed from' this portion of the building. Roofing iron is now being laid at the rear and next week the principal roof will be placed over the hall. The roof is of heavy construction, with big rafters and is very strong. ; THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL. ANOTHER WORK COMPLETED. After having undergone important alterations authorised m pursuance of the policy of remodelling school buildings considered to have potential dangers in the event of an earthquake, the Palmerston North Technical School will similarly be fully available foy/ithe resumption of teaching on Tuesday. Six heavy gables have been taken off and there is now a hipped roof. Twelve or fourteen lorry-loads of brickwork were removed from each of these gables, ' , iJ Round the whole of the school there has been plaoed a strong, continuous band of reinforced concrete containing six i-inch steel bars, well tied and with strong angle irons. The bands overlap three feet for additional security, and it is estimated that the building is now double its - previous strength. Despite the alterations, its appearance has not suffered. The work: was started on December 11 and has been carried out with the greatest rapidity. The tops of all the heavy piers nave been splayed off and replaced by caps, while a .large chimney stack at the back has been taken . down and replaced by a steel flue. An old back gable in the middle of the building has been knocked out. . -L The ceilings on the_top floor have been low r ered to give greater stability and lessen thrust. While this work was carried out, and the hands were being put underneath, the roof was carried in places on shoring. There is a new exit from both the cookery and dressmaking rooms on the- ground floor. On the top floor a new escape has been created from the dressmaking room there by building a stairway leading down into the back-yard.