Page 209 - Volume 1

Grut of Form 1 and Mr Ron Holland (chairman) to Mr “With the opening of the new school the
& Mrs R. Mather. These gifts provided treasured present Kimihia School will be closed.
memories for the Mathers of two very happy years at “Sixty children attend the present
Kimihia School. Kimihia school, and they will all attend the
 School closed at 2pm on Friday the 10th, being the new school.
final day of the old school, it was quite an “The new school, which will cost
occasion. The school was well-equipped and when £38,500, will have six classrooms, a dental
this was transferred to the new school it would room, games room and administration block.
ensure an excellent start for the new Kimihia School “Some of the building will be completed
in February 1967. in Huntly brick veneer, with the rest
being finished in timber. Six teachers
Signed - R. (Mick) Mather, will be teaching at the school, which
Head Teacher, 16.12.66 will have a capacity for 230 children.
“It is expected that 120 to 130 children
will be drawn from the Huntly primary
Up until the closure at the end of 1966 the school school to attend the new school.
had been used for the past 70 years as the centre of district “The site was developed by local
affairs from kitchen evening to political meetings, as the contractor Mr L. Masson, at a cost of
area had no hall. £4500, and the building will be completed
In 1966 a new Kimihia School was started off by John Fredrickson, another local
Russell Road in Tamihana Avenue and a new bin was contractor.”
built at the mine where the coal train now only visited
once a week. The Waikato Times reported on 15th March The old school (now three-teacher) closed at the
1966: end of 1966 and the 90 children were relocated to the new
school closer into Huntly with Principal Mick Mather
“A new primary school at Kimihia, Huntly, easing the transition by handing over to the new
is due to be opened either in the third term Principal John Lloyd for the 1967 year.
New Entrants, Primers 1 and 2, 1966 Teacher Marion Bogie of this year or at the beginning of next. On the 14th of December 1966 the pupils put on
Rear: Mark Foster, (1)_____________ , Jimmy Nash, Boy Turner, Paul Forrest, Jacky Rakels, “Completion date of the construction what was to be their last end-of-year concert for the
Ken Thompson, Simon Burdes, (2)_____________, Geoffrey Giles, Ernest Darke. contract is set at October 23, and it is parents at the ‘old school’ and the single-sheet
Centre: Lynley Holland, ( 3 ) _____________, Heather Chandler, Donna Dally, Lynnette Thompson, Nan Turner, most likely the school will be opened next programme is shown on page 189.
Leanne Leach, Carole Brungar, Gaylene Johnson, Patricia Jones. year.
Front: Mark Foster, Chris Kendrick, David Horrox, Rodger Tinney, Selwyn Watene, Kevin Holland,
Robert Manaia, Lex Reid.

Primer 3 to Standard 2, 1966 - Teacher Sandy MacDonald (an ex-pupil of 1950-57)
Rear: George Perry, Jimmy Carter, Stewart Quigley, Paul White, Euan Nicholson, Robert Thompson,
( 1 ) _____________, Brett Holland, Dean Carroll, Kevin Hart, (2)__________.

Centre: Kevin Leach, Carol White, Sandra Rakels, Bronwyn Jones, Debbie Holland, Valmay Dally,
Catherine Kendrick, Bernice Fredrickson?, Kahlua Ashby, Wendy Watene, Mark Foster.
Front: Pamela Kendrick, Nicky Ryburn, Brenda Martin-Smith, Eleanor Giles, Patricia Darke, Polly Pere.