Commissioner for Northland College

The Ministry of Education has dissolved the Northland College board of trustees and appointed a commissioner. Chris Saunders' appointment took effect on Thursday last week.

Principal John Tapene said the school's latest ERO report had recommended that a commissioner be appointed, so the decision had not come as a great surprise, although significant progress had been made in several areas that had been of concern to the ministry.

They included student achievement (Mr Tapene saying there were high hopes that the 2010 crop of university students would all graduate, boosting an already high graduation rate for former Northland College students of close to twice the national average of 35 per cent) and debt reduction.

In 2006, when Mr Tapene arrived, the college was $660,000 in debt,. Currently the figure stands at $148,000.

The college had been built for a roll of around 800, he said, and in 2006, with a roll of around 450, was still using all the facilities provided for 800 students. The school had never had the financial resources to maintain those facilities, but had not learned until 2011 that it could do anything about the situation.

A large unbudgeted sum had also had to be spent upgrading the college dairy farm.

Mr Tapene said the appointment of a commissioner would shortcut some of the processes that would have to be navigated, however, although he had not seen Mr Saunders' terms of reference.

He had had a good working relationship with Mr Saunders in the past though, and was aware that Opononi Area School and Kamo High School had benefited from his support in the past, as Whangaroa College currently was.

"They all talk very positively about him," he said, "so hopefully something positive will come out of this."