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A commissioner and a well known old boy of a Hato Petera College on Auckland’s North Shore want to save it from closure.
Hato Petera College’s roll is down to four pupils.
It’s a co-educational school for Māori students from Years 9 to 13.
The school provides students with a Catholic Māori environment.
It’s the subject of a critical ERO report.
Lex Hamill, the recently appointed commissioner of Hato Petera and old boy, Dr Lance O’Sullivan, want to improve the school’s viability.
O’Sullivan, a Northland doctor, no longer has an active role in the school, since Te Whanau o Hato Petera Trust dissolved
But he says he wants to involvement in the school’s future.
“I am committed to ensuring Hato Petera will not go off into the night, ” he says.
O’Sullivan says it’s time to talk about solutions to Hato Petera’s problems, not its struggle.
Education Review Office
In a 2014 report, the Education Review Office (ERO) raised health and safety concerns about the school’s hostel facilities.
In 2017 the Ministry of Education changed Hato Petera’s classification from boarding to day school over those earlier concerns.
Commissioner Hamill says he thinks it’s unhelpful to talk about closure every time Hato Petera makes the news.”
He said his job was to make sure the school remained operational.
Despite a roll of four pupils, Hamill says Hato Petera is not the only “iconic Māori school” struggling.
Hamill says removal of boarding pupils had affected the roll and special character of Hato Petera.
He says it’s difficult to increase the school because now it’s a day school.
“…it has to operate in the Northcote area as an integrated, unzoned school, he says.”
“At the end of the day it’s the parents who opt to send their children to our school.”
Sources:
- NZ Herald
- Education Review Office
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News category: New Zealand.
