Page 176 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

199.

KURR I KURR I SCHOOL

improvements made by the day labour staff of the Education Department
totalled a cost of £532.16.4. ($1,065.64). Twelve months later on
15th July 1948, the balance of the ground improvements was completed.
This additional work was assessed at £377.2.2. ($754.22).

During the years of 1954 and 1955, Kurri School of Arts was
again rented to provide accommodation for the overflow of pupils. Kurri
High School was completed on 12th July 1956. However, at the start of
the 1956 school year, Mr. J.P. Sharpe had been appointed as Headmaster for
the new High School (still under construction). The removal of the
secondary classes from Kurri School dramatically cut enrolments and
removed the accommodation problems. The Education Department's records
show that at the end of the 1956 school year, Kurri Primary School enrol-
ments were 365 pupils, 190 boys and 175 girls, and the Infants school had
356 pupils.

After the High School had been completed and that section of
pupils separated from the Primary School, the old High School rooms were
repainted. The Education Department works staff costed the repaint at
£3,977.5.7. ($7,954.57). Despite the advantage of additional space
obtained from the construction of the Kurri High School, with the new
te~ching trends of this period, primary school accommodation was still
taxed. The Education Department found it necessary to engage J.L. Reed
and W. Smurthwaite, Contractors of Kurri, to erect a new building at Kurri
Primary School. This was to house an Art classroom, a Pottery Annexe and
a Storeroom. The contractors were also requested to convert the needle-
rocm in the Home Science Block into a combined kitchen and needlework area.
The quote for this to be done was £10,250.0.0. ($20,500.00). Work
com.~enced and was completed on 3rd December 1959.

1963 was an important year in Kurri Primary School history -
firstly, it became co-educational and secondly, the kindergarten ~lock was
co~verted for . use as a Library.

Minor repairs were completed on 5th May 1964 by C.R. and L.M.
Thc~pson. Their price . was £2,210.14.0. ($4,421.40). This was followed