Shrinking town faces a tough lesson

By ALAN PERROTT education reporter

The staff and community of Moerewa School don't doubt the logic, but shutting down their 91-year-old institution is a wrenching prospect.

The school, founded in 1913 as Waipuna School, is the largest in Northland felled by the Ministry of Education's network review.

Its 131 pupils will next year move to Otiria School, which despite having fewer students sits on a larger site only 2km south-west.

The new, as yet unnamed, school will have a roll of up to 300 pupils.

"As do all schools, we like to think we are special," said principal Geoff Neville, who blames Moerewa School's decline on the economic rationalisations of the 1980s.

"Merging makes sense in recognising change, but there is a feeling of loss. It's hard to put into words, but I can sense it.

"My biggest concern is what happens to the site."

Moerewa township once left near-neighbour Kawakawa in the shade thanks to its freezing works, railway network and timber mills.

The school's roll peaked at 600 and it can boast old boys such as All Black prop Hallard "Snow" White and former prime minister Mike Moore.

Now the towns' roles are reversed, and 294-pupil Kawakawa School escaped the review unscathed.

A ministry report recommended the merger on financial grounds, so money used maintaining under-utilised buildings can be spent on teachers and educational resources.

Whatever the fate of their school, the staff and pupils could retain a presence on the site because last year everyone scrawled a signature and message on the underside of timber used to build a shade area.

The change will probably end 63-year-old June Whiu's career - she, the principal and two other teachers feature in a staff photograph from 1969.

Mrs Whiu, who went to Moerewa in 1963 as a reliever, is now teaching the children of past pupils.

"I've seen a lot of successful people come out of this school," she said. "They still visit me to ask if I'm still teaching. I must say when I signed the plank with everyone else I didn't imagine it would almost be the end."

She recalls taking classes of 42 on school trips then flips to today: "There's been so much pressure with the review I think I'll just back out quietly. I haven't played golf yet."