Mr Luders, who started in May 2013, said he was happy the ERO recommended the intervention continue.
"The school was in a really, really bad way in all aspects and we're not ready to go back to a board," he said. "It's a long, slow task and it needs a steady hand on it."
It was likely the ministry would appoint a board of trustees later in the year, with Mr Saunders remaining at the school as a limited statutory manager, Mr Luders said.
While a commissioner takes on the role of the board of trustees, a limited statutory manager means the school had a board but the manager just took on some functions of it.
Since 1989 there had been several Ministry of Education interventions, the report said. It recommended the intervention continue to maintain progress and address remaining concerns about the curriculum, governance, property and financial viability.
Since the review took place, in term 3 last year, many of those concerns had already been addressed, Mr Luders said.
The quality of the buildings at the school was adversely affecting the wellbeing of staff and students, the report said.
The buildings at the moment were "disgusting", Mr Luders said. "You wouldn't put a dog in them basically, let alone children."
Not only were some of them seven decades old but they had been poorly maintained, he said. A rebuild of the entire school, apart from the administration block, would begin in October and be complete in early 2017.
While the school's financial position continued to be a problem because of historic debt, the money available was being managed very well, the report said.
There was significant progress in the use of student achievement data to analyse and manage how students were going.
As a result, NCEA results had increased at the school between 2013 and last year. The school's largest increase was in Level 2, which went from 65 per cent in 2013 to 93.3 per cent last year.
