Church College of New Zealand

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Church College of New Zealand
Motto	Build Now for Eternity
Type	Private, Co-educational, Secondary Years 9-13
Year established	1958
Address	Tuhikaramea Road, Temple View, Hamilton
Coordinates
Principal	Lloyd Keung
School roll	535
Socio-economic decile (10 is highest)	4
Ministry of Education Institution no.	128
Website

Church College of New Zealand is a private secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand, that is operated by the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It has been scheduled to be closed in 2009.

1 History
- 1.1 Construction
2 Enrollment
3 Closure
4 See also
5 Notes

[edit] History

Construction of the Church College of New Zealand began in 1955, after the LDS Church announced that it would construct a temple in Hamilton. Church College and the Hamilton New Zealand Temple were built on the same 35 hectare site in what later became Temple View, a suburb of Hamilton. Both facilities were built entirely by volunteer labour missionaries of the LDS Church. Church College was dedicated and formally opened on 1958-04-26 by LDS church president David O. McKay with Clifton D. Boyack as the first principal of the school.^[1]

[edit] Construction

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The foundations were laid for everything in Temple View in the early 1950s. Inspection for a property in Tuikaramea road began in 1950. The mission president Gordon Young drove out to the area, and knew immediately that that was the place where the LDS Church was to build a school and temple. Church officials from Utah came and bought the property, and members of the church from all over New Zealand slowly moved into the area to work as labour missionaries on the project.

Before any work commenced on the school, the surrounding property was developed. The temple foundations were laid, the accommodations for the people who came to work were built, and a social infrastructure was established. Initially, there were only a few people at the site. Much of the surrounding land was peat, and it took some ingenuity to make the land agriculturaly productive.

Many of the existing buildings were used as temporary quarters for those participating in construction and administration. Cottages were built to house the building missionaries when they arrived. Dormitory-type accommodations were provided for the single men. Food was sent in from the church members in other parts of the country, and some of it was grown locally.

A stream ran across the property behind the men's accommodation and behind their eating house. In the winters it always flooded so the men's accommodation and some of the cottages were usually semi-submerged in water at the time. Eventually concrete piping was brought in to seal the stream. During construction, a young child drowned in the stream.

[edit] Enrollment

The school teaches students in New Zealand's educational years nine through thirteen (13- to 18-year olds). There are approximately 700 students and 100 staff members. A modest tuition is charged but the school is heavily subsidized by the LDS Church. Approximately 10% of Latter Day Saint high school students in New Zealand attend Church College, with some attending the school away from home as a boarding school.

[edit] Closure

On 2006-06-29, LDS Church leaders announced that the Church College of New Zealand would cease accepting new students in 2007 and would close at the end of the 2009 school year; in discussing its decision, the church cited a policy of the church to close its private secondary schools when the public school system is able to offer "quality education".^[2]