Dear Kevinians and Supporters
Kia ora from a rather rain soaked and waterlogged St Kevin's community. The challenge this week has been to keep teaching and learning firmly in focus despite the challenging weather. Flooding earlier in the week disrupted travel with the rural buses not running for two days, followed by snow in the hinterland and a number of tree falls which resulted in a late start today. With the ground so sodden, the high winds have pushed quite mature trees over. The sounds of chainsaws has echoed in the grounds as the team from Whitestone Contracting have felled trees next to our boundary within the Council's plantation. We are grateful for their efforts in such appalling conditions.
It is timely to revisit the lines of communication at times like these. Firstly, as we are a boarding school with over 100 students and a number of staff living on site, we are almost always open for instruction. The only times that the school would close are when there is a major civil defense emergency and we are instructed to do so or a major health and safety issue such as the failure of sewage or heating plants. We try to maintain normal lessons unless our staff are stranded as well. We often arrange for a 10 am start into period 2 so that we can assess any problems in daylight and make arrangements for covering classes. (This week we had a blocked storm water drain and tree fall to deal with before the students arrived.) Student safety is our primary concern.We do not expect students or staff to take risks getting to or from school. If there is an emergency communication it will be on the local radio and the St Kevin's Facebook page. Please use the link from our web page to access the Facebook page as there are a number of unofficial versions on the web.
May God bless you all.
Paul Olsen, Principal.
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