New life for school building | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Much of the sadness and confusion of schools in the Masterton district being closed and reconstituted was washed away yesterday in a ceremony which saw the Miki Miki School building reopened on its new site several kilometres down the road at Opaki School.

When Miki Miki School was named as one of the smaller schools to be closed by the Ministry of Education it ended 106 years of education in the district. It was a hard decision to swallow according to the former chairman of the Miki Miki board of trustees, Peter Teahan.

Yesterday he praised the ingenuity of the Opaki board, which saw the opportunity to use the Miki Miki School building on its site and continue an education link for both the Miki Miki and Opaki districts. Named the Miki Miki block, it will house new entrant pupils at Opaki from the beginning of the school year in 2005.

The combined school pupils, pictured, sang the New Zealand national anthem at the formal ceremony yesterday. Also pictured are Tim Compton, 13, left, and B.J. Campbell, 13, right, who both started Miki Miki School at the age of 5.

They are cutting the ribbon to the Miki Miki block with Opaki School's newest pupil, Byron Bunny, 5.