Murrumburrah High School Principal Mr Dale Rands. The new roof is nearing completion. Prinicpal Rands at his desk.
Principal Rands became MHS Principal in 2019 and has set about ensuring that MHS gets its fair share and more, when it come to school maintenance. He began his teaching career at Wilcania in the state’s west, before 14 years at Bateman’s Bay on the coast.
He headed north to Tamworth where he stayed for another decade before returning to the Riverina area. Principal Rands is originally from Temora and taught at Cootamundra High School last year and was the relieving Principal. His wife is originally from Young and he understands how small rural communities work as well as small schools. When the position came up at Murrumburrah High, he applied and was appointed at the end of 2018. Principal Rands soon sat down with his executive team, he wanted to introduce himself and he wanted them to put everything on the table.
He said, “It was impressive to know that everyone was on board with making changes, we all agreed that we should be offering as many subjects in year 11 and 12 and we wanted to keep the curriculum pattern as strong as possible. We want to grow the numbers at the school. That is a commitment I made to the PNC this year and the school is growing with the numbers coming through from Murrumburrah Public School.”
Principal Rands said, “We are on about 140 kids and Murrumburrah Public School is at about 180. We haven’t got a huge drawing area, we pick up kids from Binalong, Jugiong and some kids from Wombat.”
He has made maintenance a focus in 2019 and this will continue to be the case in 2020 with work to continue on air conditioning, removal of old green vinyl, replacement of carpet and the school’s facade. The old ’Swampy’ air conditioners will be replaced with more efficient split systems which use far less water.
Principal Rands said, “I’ve been able to pick the job up and push ahead with what needs to be done. The school needs money spent on it and I’ve been fighting hard that we get more than our slice and the new roof is only a start. We have a lot of drainage work and painting to happen yet.”
For those who haven’t been past Murrumburrah High School lately, it is certainly worth a look. The brand new roof in maroon colours, the same as the Harden Hawks and looks resplendent in the sunshine.
The Times will be discussing more with Principal Rands over the coming weeks. Year 12 exams will continue while the current year 11 class steps into the shoes of the 2019 class and commences year 12 studies.
Best wishes to all students in their exams.
