Page 90 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

97.

CE SSN0 CK SCH0 0 L

This indicated that the school combined primary schooling and some
lower level of secondary education. The Education Department records
show for the Cessnock School these levels of status:-

1913 1917 Commercial School
1918 1920 Junior Technical School
1920 1933 Intermediate High School
1934 High School

By 1915 pupil enrolments had exceeded one thousand (1 ,000)
and class accommodation was very short. To overcome the problem two
more classrooms for infants were built by A. Burg of Maitland for
£627.0.0 ($1 ,254.00). In 1916, a double portable classroom was moved
from Weston by W.L. Morris, the cost was £76.0.0 ($152.00). Still
class accommodation was pressed. The Baptist Church on the corner
of Quorrobolong and Hall Streets, was rented at £1 .0.0 ($2.00) per
week to provide temporary relief. A separate brick building for girls
was completed in November 1918 at a cost of £4,523.0.0 ($9,046.00).
The new section was of two storeys and included seven classrooms,
a sewing room and a headmistress' room. During the 'influenze epidemic'
of 1919, this new building had been utilised as an 'isolation hospital'.
The building was returned to school-use on 1st August 1919. The new
section received a belated official opening on Saturday 22nd November
1919 by Mr. James, M.L.A., Minister for Education. Amongst the Civic
Leaders who attended were Mr. W. Kearsley, Member of Legislative Assembly
for Cessnock Electorate; Mr. J.Y. Russell, President of Cessnock
Shire and Mr. A.E. Kirk, President of Cessnock Primary. School Parents
and Citizens' Association. In his address, Mr. Kirk stated that at
this date the school had one thousand three hundred (1 ,300) pupils.

Enrolment for the secondary classes in the Cessnock-Aberdare
Superior Public School had risen to seventy (70l by 1920, when the
school becar.ie an unclassified Intermediate High School and was housed