She stopped and sat on one of the seats that stretched along one glass wall, to gather her thoughts. Unexpectedly, instead of the problem being a lack of discipline throughout the school, it appeared to be too restrictive, especially in the secondary section. She knew the South Island was more formal than at home but to try to create a school with antiquated traditions, could be part of the reason for the falling secondary roll. She knew that many of the pupils in the primary section left after Year 8 to board at private or public single-sex schools in Dunedin so why try to emulate them with those that remained? The walkway she was in was really the division between the two sections of the school. From the air, it would look like a giant rectangle with tennis courts and grassed grounds in the middle. The senior school was to the west and north, the hall and admin block, south and the new primary block on the east beside the road. Basically it was that, contrary to the philosophy of area schools in the country, Tuckett Area School was being run like two separate schools.
She took out her mini iPad and made an oral summary of her thoughts that was converted to a written statement. This was the third statement to herself and probably one of many she would make in the following days.
AS KARLA STOOD UP SHE heard a muffled hissing noise and looked out through the eastern doors to see clouds of steam rising from the tennis courts. She peered closer and saw Brody McNear, the school caretaker hosing a fountain of steaming water across the concrete through a gigantic hose, the size of one a fire brigade would use. Curious, she slid the sliding door open a fraction and squeezed through. The drop in temperature from about twenty degrees Celsius to below zero made her gasp and pull her coat around her scarf that she was wearing.
She almost slipped on the frozen surface but steadied herself and walked the dozen or so metres towards the caretaker. He turned, noticed her and turned a valve on the hose. Immediately, the steaming water stopped flowing.
"Good morn' ye, Mrs Spicer," he said. Brody was probably past retirement age but had lost little of his Scottish accent in the forty or more years since he had immigrated to New Zealand. He was also one of the few who had resisted calling her Karla. "A good day for a wee dram of whisky, wouldn't ye say?"
Karla grinned. "I'm not used to these cold temperatures, Brody but you certainly keep the school buildings warm."
Brodie rubbed his stubble. "Aye, it's all automatic now. When I started here I had to shovel coal in the furnace. Dirt-cheap it was and the coal came from Kaitangata, the mine near Balcutha. Bloody hard work, though..." He grimaced. "Sorry for me language. Not used to a lady boss."
"That's okay, but tell me why are you cleaning the courts in this temperature?"
Brody laughed. "Not cleaning them, Mrs Spicer, gettin' them ready for the skating season." He turned and waved his hand out. "Did you notice the concrete lip around the edge of this near court?"
"I did."
"That's to hold the ice in. Now, if I used cold water, the hose would freeze and nothing would come out. I get hot water from the furnace. Makes for smooth ice rather than chunky dangerous stuff, too. By tomorrow it will be as thick and smooth as glass but we give it a few days to consolidate. Probably by next week the seniors will be able to bring their skates to school and all hell will break loose." He laughed again. "Ain't had a broken arm for a couple of years now but you never know."
"Just the seniors, you say?"
"The Year 7 and 8s can skate too but not the wee ones."
"Why not?"
Brody shrugged. "The boss reckons it's too dangerous and they'll be flattened by the big boys." He squinted at her. "But you're the bigger boss aren't you?"
Karla just smiled. "Will I won't stop you Brody. I guess too big an interruption will cause a ridge to be created in the frozen surface."
"Could do Lass," he said and turned the valve on. Steaming hot water roared out like that from a vintage steam train and stopped any more conversation.
Karla waved a goodbye and retreated back inside the walkway. She still watched, fascinated for several minutes before heading back through the empty assembly hall to her office in the administration block. A decade before, she had spent a few weeks in a Canadian winter on an overseas trip and had seen children of only three or four skating. Why couldn't the younger children do it here?
THAT NIGHT AND FOR no known reason, Alexis just didn't want to go to bed. On their fourth attempt Karla lifted the toddler into her arms and took her into the main bedroom.
"Now go to sleep in Daddy's and my bed, My Sweet," she said. "We'll leave the light on and bring Charlie in for you." Charlie was Alexis's favourite soft toy, a somewhat tatty bear that had once been her own when she was a child.
"Okay Mummy," the tired little girl muttered and snuggled into the bed. Within a few blinks she was sound asleep. Karla pulled the blankets up round her, gave her a kiss on the forehead and retreated up to the adjacent bedroom that Ryan had converted into an office for his two computers, three monitors and other electronic equipment. He had a broad grin on his face as he leaned back in his shrivel chair.
"Okay what is it?" Karla whispered. "I'm dog tired and am about to have it out with Don Trow tomorrow. I'm fed up with his passive resistance, if you can call it that."
"I've hacked into the whole school's computer system," Ryan replied. "Being on the same optic fibre lead made it dead easy."
"Why not?" Karla retorted sarcastically but pulled up another swivel chair and sat down. She could tell by Ryan's body language that he had found something of interest. "But go on."
Ryan nodded over at the third screen. "The main screen in Trow's office. He had a firewall between it and the main computer in Roxanne's office."
Roxanne Smith was the full time School Administration Officer and also secretary and treasurer for the Board of Trustees. Karla had found her a conscious, pleasant woman in her fifties who provided her with any information about the school she had asked for. In fact, she was the one to approach for anything needed, rather than Trow and his surly attitude.
"But you bypassed it?"
"Yeah; real amateur effort. I reckon he'd just downloaded software and attached it to his office computer."
"So what has he got that he wants nobody to know about?"
"This!"
Ryan pressed a few keys and the third monitor flashed up in bright purple with words in a different alphabet appearing. "Russian alphabet," Ryan grunted and moved his arrow up to a symbol on the right. "There is an English version."
"A porno site?" Karla asked.
"No but almost a bad."
The screen changed to one of yellow letters in a cartoon like scene. Fun World Casino - Where your dreams true come.
"Not even grammatical," Karla nodded. "So he's been betting on this Russian casino?"
"Worse. He was in the hock for twenty thousand American dollars and they had put the screws on him to pay up."
"You used the past tense."
Ryan grinned. "Now the fun part. He withdrew twenty five thousand New Zealand dollars from the school PTA account and paid off the debt."
"What!" Karla gasped. "There's no parent teacher association at Tuckett. It's been defunct for two years now."
"True but the school still has an PTA account, separate from the Board accounts and being a voluntary organisation, it is not subject to the strict scrutiny that the other school finances are. It had eighty thousand dollars in it a year back but it's down to thirty now. I brought it up on screen and it is full of accounts for school electronic equipment, iPads and so forth."
"We have plenty of those."
"But not supplied by the companies listed. They're fake! It is another real amateur effort. One of your Year 11s could do a better job at rigging the books."
"I see." Karla felt grim. "I'll tackle him tomorrow about it."
Ryan grinned again. "No, keep it up your sleeve. You know the old saying about giving a man enough rope and he'll hang himself?"
Karla's anger changed. She had information
about Don Trow that had eluded her before. But she needed to be discrete for Ryan's computer hacking wasn't entirely legal, to say the least.
"You told anyone else about this?" she asked.
Ryan smiled. "Of course not. Why would I be interested in what goes on next door, even if my wife is the big chief there?"
Karla couldn't help smiling. "Okay, but while you're at it, why don't you go into the Year 12 and 13 Common Room computer and see what they're up to."
"Already have. Nothing bad. Only the illegal downloading of music, the latest TV shows and pirated movies. No porno at all."
"That's something," Karla replied.
"Of course there's that firewall I couldn't get through. Someone there is too bright for his or her own good."
"What?" Karla almost screamed.
"Just kidding," Ryan laughed and swept her into his arms.
"By the way, do you want a part-time job?" she asked
"Another caretaker or groundsman's job like I had at Tui Park?"
"No. Driving the North Bus. Takes about three quarters of an hour in the morning and the same at night.. The present driver has resigned."
"Problems?"
Karla grinned. "Only family. She's pregnant." She explained that Tuckett Area School had three bus routes. Two large buses followed Highway 85 to the east or west while the smaller bus headed north from Tuckett. When nobody tendered for the government contract a few years a earlier, the board of trustees decided to buy their own bus. They bought a small twenty-six seater as a used import from Japan for half the new price. "That's the one you'll drive if you take the job," she said.
"That the little yellow Mitsubishi Rosa with the school name on it?"
Karla shrugged. "I guess that's it; a bus is a bus to me. Tuckett Motors, the local firm has the contract for the other routes but also maintains and garages this bus for us. All you have to do is drive."
Ryan nodded. "Sounds quite good. It'll get me away from the computer twice a day."
AFTER TALKING TO THE present driver and taking a ride out that afternoon with her to check the route, Ryan decided take the job. He already had a bus licence so the following afternoon the position became his.
Every morning at seven-thirty, he picked up the mini bus at the garage a block away and drove through flat plateau lands and into rolling hills where there were several large farms with twenty-two children to pick up. These ranged in age from Hamish Williams in Year 13 with his younger siblings down to Frankie Jessop a chatty little girl in Year 2. They greeted him every morning with a "Hi Ryan," after first calling him Mr Spicer, not his own surname of Purdon. He had merely grinned and didn't bother to tell them that Karla had kept her surname after their marriage and Alexis had the hyphenated name of Purdon-Spicer.
"Just call me Ryan," he had said instead and that's what they did from that moment on.
CHAPTER 4
Deanne Waitapu was the youngest teacher on the staff who had only been at the school for a term longer than Karla. She took music throughout the senior school as well as drama and math and was the home teacher for the Year 11 students and Level 1 of the NCEA. This was the government assessment and examination system. Roxanne had told Karla that Deanne had replaced old Harvey who had retired after being on the staff here and at the former Tuckett High School for close to twenty years.
Karla found Deanne conscientious who in many ways reminded her of Lexi McKenzie back at Tui Park School. The young teacher did, however find taking math for NCEA quite difficult. She knew her subject having taken several papers in mathematics for her degree but it was the students who didn't help. Last year, half the class had failed the NCEA Level l math so even though they were in Year 12 this year they had to repeat Level 1 in math and in several cases, other subjects as well. This was a difficult age and one where many of the the less talented students dropped out as soon as they reached sixteen, the end of compulsory education in New Zealand. In contrast the seventeen and eighteen year old students were self motivated and discipline problems were almost non-existent, well except for that use of the internet that Karla was still to follow up.
Karla was holding personal interviews with every teacher and in two cases had to tell the teacher concerned that she was not satisfied with their efforts, in one case his planning and evaluation for the seniors that he taught was inadequate and in another, the teacher really did nothing while the students did work over the internet. She was told quite frankly that if she did not improve she should look for another position elsewhere. Deanne was the last in the senior school to be interviewed. Karla had asked her to come in on Friday morning, earlier than her ten o'clock starting time. Due to the falling roll, Harvey's full time position had been replaced by a part-time position.
Deanne arrived, sat nervously in an office armchair and watched as Karla pulled up a swivel chair in front of rather than behind the desk.
"As you know, Deanne," Karla began. "One of the reasons I am here is to integrate the school into one unit, rather than two schools sharing the same site."
Deanne nodded miserably but did not try to make excuses.
"It directly affects you, possibly more than any teacher on the staff."
"I thought it might," the young woman whispered.
"Firstly, it is not your fault that the math pass rate from last year was so low that four pupils are repeating the level in Year 12. They are obviously not interested in math and are apathetic and disruptive. I shall be telling Gavin and Kirsty that they have one month to improve their attitude and marks in maths or they will be withdrawn from your class. In Gavin's case it also applies to two other subjects he takes."
"You can do that?" Deanne gasped.
"Oh yes. Why should a whole class have their chances ruined by a few louts?" Karla continued on with a positive comment on Deanne's, teaching, planning and evaluation in all the subjects she taught. The teacher looked a little more cheerful now but still apprehensive as if expecting a 'but you will need to...' comment.
"Your favourite subject is music and in a larger school you would like to just take subjects and activities relating to music such as a band or choir?"
"True."
"And you find the Room 10, our music room inadequate?"
"I usually go to the assembly hall to take music. The piano there is better and ..." Deanna became quite enthusiastic and gave several reasons why she preferred using the hall rather than the half classroom size music room.
Karla nodded but remained non-committal. "Considering our small size, what would you like to see happen in the music department?
Karla listened as Deanne made several suggestions, from buying more instruments to having some school performance or operetta sometime in the future.
"Involving the whole school?" Karla interjected.
"Yes. Why not?"
"Why not indeed!" Karla replied. "Because of our size again, I cannot take math teaching away from you but I can offer you additional music classes."
Deanna frowned. "Additional? But I have no extra time. I'm only here as a point eight teacher on a long term relieving contract that expires at the end of the year."
"Here's my offer." Karla reached across to her desk for a document. "I have several discretionary teaching hours I can allocate where I think it is useful. In your case I can offer you a full time permanent position."
Deanne stared at her but remained cautious. "A permanent full time position, you say?"
"Yes but you must agree to use those extra hours in the junior school."
"Doing what?"
"I want you to take all the four primary classes for music and dancing."
"So I'll be taking the whole school for music?"
"Almost. As you know, we don't provide music as a Year 12 and 13 subject but you will take every level from Brandi's Year 1 through to your own Year 11 home class."
"Is that possible?" She suddenly sounded flustered but excited.
"It is.'" Karla glanced up. "There's one more thing; I a
gree that Room 10 is useless as a music room or even general classroom. If you accept the position of course, I propose to shift you into the hardly used Room 3 in the Junior block. Incidentally, I intend to rename it East Block with the Senior Block becoming the North Block. This will be the first of many physical changes I'll be making so Tuckett becomes a proper composite school, not one in name only."
"Oh my God. After what I heard had happened to the others, I was sure you were going to tell me to buck up or my contract would not be renewed." Deanne accepted the tissue box offered to her and wiped her eyes that had begun to water. "Thank you Karla. I don't know what to say."
"That you'll accept the permanent position offered to you. You can have a week to think about it."
"No need," Deanna replied. "I'll take it! When will I begin taking the younger kids?"
"Next term but you can move into Room 3 and use it for all your classes as from next week, if you wish. The senior boys and caretaker can help shift the piano and other heavy stuff there. The remedial reading and other groups that use it now will go to Room 10 that will be perfect for smaller groups."
Deanne wiped her eyes again and they almost glowed. "Can I shout you down at the tavern tonight?"
"Why not? I'd love to come."
KARLA TOLD RYAN THAT he had to look after Alexis as she was going to the pub that evening. He raised his eyebrows, nodded but said nothing."Aren't you going to ask why?"
"Deanna's shout after you promoted her."
"What? I never promoted her and anyway how did you know?"
"It's all over town. The rumour is that Don will be walking soon. Some are calling you The Iron Blonde after you told those other two to buck up or ship out."
"That's an exaggeration, too."
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