Ex-soldier steps in at school

Political troubleshooter and former top soldier Sir Harawira Gardiner has been appointed to run the troubled Hamilton school Fraser High after its board stood down.

Sir Harawira took over the board's roles at midday on Friday and is responsible for the governance of the school as commissioner - the Ministry of Education's highest level of intervention.

Last month the school's high-profile principal Martin Elliott stood down amid claims and investigations into his alleged misuse of school funds on personal properties.

Sir Harawira told the Herald he had never acted as a commissioner but was unfazed, having helped to mediate and negotiate multimillion-dollar treaty settlements and spending years contracting his services to the Government as a go-to man to sort political problems.

"This (commissioner's role) is slightly different in its context but over the years I have been into a considerable number of organisations and I think the approach to this organisation will be not too dissimilar to those," said Sir Harawira, who also served as a combat platoon commander in Vietnam.

"The first task I have at the school is to stabilise what is a fairly complex situation," he said.

"The second task is to appoint a new principal, the third task is to put in place the processes and instruments to ensure the high school performs of its abilities and fourthly to appoint a board of trustees."

A former director of the Waitangi Tribunal and chief executive of the Ministry of Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri, Sir Harawira said he would spend two to three weeks assessing the situation at the Waikato's largest school before reporting to the Secretary of Education, Karen Sewell.

Fraser High's former board of trustees co-chairmen Jade Chase and Graham Sharp said in a statement that the board had weighed up what it could achieve in its capacity and what changes would be best for the school.

"We now believe that having been able to expose these matters it is time now to move to the next stage of ensuring they are addressed.

"The board has unanimously decided that the next stage in ensuring the best interests of the school are met is to resign."

Schools Trustees Association employment relations adviser Peter Murphy said Sir Harawira was likely to be in his role for about six months. "We are still very hopeful we will return governance back to the community in May next year when the (board of trustees) elections are to be held."