Northland College on track

Northland College Principal Jim Luders has welcomed the school becoming self-governing after more than three years under a ministry-appointed commissioner. Photo / File

Kaikohe's Northland College is back to self-governance after more than three years under a ministry-appointed commissioner.

The school board was dismissed in June 2012 and replaced by Commissioner Chris Saunders following an ERO report citing a raft of problems including unsafe buildings, poor financial management and ineffective governance.

The new Board of Trustees, most of whom have been appointed by the Education Ministry, held their first meeting on November 3. Mr Saunders will remain at the school as a limited statutory manager.

The new chairman is Okaihau businessman and Northland College old boy Ken Rintoul.

He said the school had changed greatly since he attended in the 1970s, when it had a roll of more than 900 and a boarding school attracting students from around the country and the Pacific.

The college had been through tough times but thanks to Mr Saunders, principal Jim Luders and a committed and resilient staff, it was starting a new and exciting era.

Mr Rintoul said the problems the college had faced, and the resulting publicity, meant there was an "unprecedented commitment" from government agencies to invest serious money in the school's future.

Mr Luders said the return to self-governance was just one of many new developments at the college.

Repairs had started to make the school safe until a $15 million rebuild was complete, a new toilet block had been built and cosmetic improvements such as painting were well underway.

Groundwork for the new buildings would start in December with the major earthworks due to begin in March 2016 and the opening scheduled for mid-2017.

Honey company Comvita was interested in growing manuka on school land, which includes a forest and a working farm, and the Ministry of Primary Industries was looking into the possibilities for forestry and beekeeping.

The college planned to open a teen parent unit next year with space for 30 young mums and in the long term it was looking to attract tertiary education providers on site.

Mr Rintoul will be joined on the board by Carolyn Alexander-Bennett (a former deputy principal at the college, now e-principal of a cluster of Northland schools), Te Roopu Poa (a manager at Te Hau Ora O Kaikohe) and Mr Luders.

Kelly Yakas was elected as the parent representative. The other reps are Keith Wihongi (Te Runanga-a-iwi o Ngapuhi), Gabriel Segerfrojd (staff) and Phoenix Witehira (students).