Wisps of Wisdom

by Ross Richdale

  "I know," Stuart said. "That's the difference between this school and the one south of you. The two schools are built in similar type suburbs but how they are managed and run are a world apart."

  "Bit like North and South Korea," John added. "Sometimes the schools in the poorer parts of town are easier to run."

  "I found that on the ERO team," Stuart said. "We had problems are both ends of the social scale with some of those exclusive private schools being the worst while there were many delightful schools in the poorer areas."

  "I'll contact you with the final details about the meeting, Karla," John said. "Thanks for your help."

  Karla smiled. "Yeah, I could never resist your persuasive powers, could I?"

  John grinned at Stuart. "It's called teamwork, I believe."

  Karla laughed. "Now you're both here, how'd you like a stroll around the school?"

  Stuart nodded. "I'd love one. " He turned to John. "But have we time?"

  "Of course we have," John replied. "It'll give us a comparison with Westview, won't it?"

  *

  The following Wednesday, Karla could see what Stuart meant when she walked into the grounds of Westview Intermediate during morning interval and took a moment to study the students. Most seemed to be just mooching around but she did see a group of boys taunting some girls and, in a separate incident, a group of students were roaring as two boys were having a fight. If she was back at Joseph Ward she would have stepped in and stopped both incidents. Now, though, she just glanced at John who was walking with her and grimaced.

  They walked into a foyer that was smaller but similar to the one at her school. There were no students or anyone else there but an assistant appeared when John rung a tiny bell sitting on the counter.

  She looked surprised when she saw Karla. "Mrs Spicer, we didn't expect you here. I thought..." She hesitated. "Mr McGrail is already in his office with Mr Niles and another gentleman. I'll take you through."

  Karla walked in to a frosty look from Peter Niles and a neutral glance from another man who would be about her own age. Stuart stood and stepped across to John and herself.

  "This is John Cosgrove from The Ministry of Education and Karla Spicer, principal of Joseph Ward Junior High School who is here in her executive principal capacity." Stuart turned to Karla and John. "You both know Peter but accompanying him is Thomas Waugh, field officer of the NZEI, the primary teachers' union."

  Niles voice was icy. "What is happening at this school is none of Mrs Spicer's business. I do not recognise the position of Executive Principal."

  Karla caught his eyes and noticed a twitch but it seemed to be more of fear than aggression. She turned to John. "If my presence is embarrassing to Peter, I shall leave."

  It was Waugh who replied. "No, Mrs Spicer. The latest regulations allow appointed Executive Principals to be in attendance in meetings where a complaint has been filed against a principal. Please stay."

  After a somewhat lengthy preamble about other legalities and interpretation of Stuart and John's rights, a somewhat deflated Peter Niles sat back and sighed.

  "Okay, my board has been fired and there are complaints about my methods of running the school but as far as I can tell, I have done nothing wrong nor do I need to be supervised by a so called executive principal, whether it is Mrs Spicer or somebody else." He glanced across at Karla. "I have nothing against you personally, it is the position that I still refuse to recognise."

  John looked grim. "You have managed to hide the truth for fifteen years, Mr Niles and won positions as principal at this school and the one before it using falsified academic qualifications."

  "That is a serious statement," Waugh said. "I hope you have proof to back it up."

  "I have," John replied and withdrew the ring binder from his satchel that Karla had read earlier. "It is all here but I'll summarise."

  Peter Nile's face turned white but John ignored him and continued. "You graduated from the Auckland College of Education in 1982 with a Diploma of Primary Education but that was all, Mr Niles. Both your bachelor and masters degrees supposedly obtained from two Australian universities are faked. Without these, I doubt if you would have been appointed to the position of principal at Stevens Primary School, let alone the one at this school. It was more than buying some fake certificates to place on your wall but a sophisticated fraud that wouldn't be possible without the present day electronic systems."

  Stuart McGrail continued. "It was only by going back to the university graduation lists for the years that you said you had graduated that we found the discrepancy. You were on their graduation lists but nowhere else. Photographs in yearbooks for the years involved never showed you, even though you stated that you were in a university cricket team at both places and no student lists for the courses you said you studied for your degrees, contained your name. I don't know how you managed to get your name on the final lists but believe it was done by hacking into the online facsimiles of the original documents and simply added your name."

  John continued. "We have asked the universities concerned for photographs of the original documents before they were added to computer records and expect to find that your name is not included." He glanced at Peter Nile. "Is that correct?"

  The man nodded but said nothing.

  "You have a choice, Mr Nile," Stuart said. "You can either take sick leave for the remainder of the year or be suspended, pending the outcome of any official inquiry. In either case, do not expect to be able to return to your position here, next year."

  "And if Peter takes sick leave, will he be able to return if this inquiry fails to prove that he falsified his academic qualifications?" Thomas Waugh asked.

  "Forget about it, Thomas," Peter Niles whispered. "I know when I am beaten." He glanced up at John. "I am fifty-nine and intended to resign in a couple of years anyway. If I agree to resign today, will my superannuation rights be affected?"

  "It depends. If you are charged with a criminal offence and found guilty it could be reduced. However, if you co-operate with us and tell us who issued you with these fake degrees we will probably let it stand."

  Thomas spoke. "So if Peter cooperates with the Ministry of Education and resigns from his position here, the criminal charges against him will be overlooked?"

  "Yes," John said.

  "And can the reasons for his resignation be kept confidential?"

  Karla noticed John look over at Stuart and her.

  She glanced at Niles and realised he was devastated. "In my opinion, for the good of the school as well as Peter's standing in the community, everything relating to this event should remain confidential," she said.

  "I tend to agree," Stuart added. "My position is to rebuild Westview Intermediate to the stage where a new board of trustees can be elected. If Peter takes sick leave in lieu of retirement, we can place an acting principal here and appoint a new one sometime next year."

  The meeting continued but Karla wasn't really interested in the legalities. Like in previous cases she had been involved in she was quite saddened by everything. Sure, Peter Niles had brought it on himself but being vindictive would help nobody.

  *

  "So will you help any acting principal get established?" John asked as they drove back to Joseph Ward Junior High.

  "I think Stuart is quite capable in that direction but I will help unofficially if I'm needed. I am not going to commit myself to a permanent Executive Principal position, though."

  John smiled. "Thanks. I think it has worked out quite well and I can't really expect any more from you. Westview Intermediate could be a great school like yours under the right hands."

  Karla nodded and thought back to Carol Dodunski and the other teachers trying to leave Westview Intermediate. It was a pity that one person could ruin a whole school.

  *

  CHAPTER 14

  Karla had a sleepless night. While Ryan snored away, she tossed and turned but could not get comfortable. With a little over a month to go she wa
s sure she was twice as large as before Alexia was born. As well her ankles had swollen but she had ignored her midwife's suggestion that she needed to put her feet up and perhaps take early maternity leave. In the end she went into the lounge and watched a detective program on television. She never actually found who did the murder for she had finally dropped off to awaken to find a different story being played. It was a little after five so she decided to have a shower and get ready for the day. That was when Alexis wandered in and complained of a sore tummy.

  And still Ryan snored on but at least it was Friday.

  At ten past seven the phone rang.

  "Hello Karla," said a cultured male voice that she couldn't recognise. "Sorry for the early call but I wanted to catch you before you left for school."

  Still wondering who it was, she was about to ask who was calling when it clicked. The caller was Stuart McGrail!

  "Hi Stuart, how can I help?"

  "You recognised my voice? That's great! There are more problems over at Westview, I'm afraid. Can I drop into your school sometime this morning to discuss a couple of them?"

  "Of course. As far as I know, I've no meetings this morning," She chuckled. "I try to keep Friday free of parent, staff or student interviews. It's not always possible, though. Will nine-thirty be okay?"

  "Fine. I'll see you then."

  *

  Stuart wore more casual clothes but still had that authoritative look as he walked into her office and quite unlike John, waited to be invited to sit down. She sat across from him and listened as he spoke.

  "This is Peter Nile's last day before taking sick leave for the remainder of the year. The trouble is who is going to be acting principal for the last six weeks of this school year?" he began.

  "Won't one of the DPs do it?"

  "They only have one DP and four Syndicate Supervisors who are equivalent to an Assistant Principal. Heard of Judy Mosgrove?"

  "Isn't she their DP? I meet her at one of the district courses earlier in the year."

  "Yes and she's also Peter Niles' partner. About four years ago they both separated from their spouses, in his case from a wife of about thirty years and Mrs Mosgrove shifted into his house. At that time she was just an ordinary teacher who later won the DPs job there. I heard that it caused a bit of ill feeling at the time."

  "Niles manipulating the appointments?"

  "Probably but school records show that everything was done by the book. Anyway, she has also requested immediate sick leave that, in my capacity as commissionaire I have granted." He grimaced but never expanded on either statement.

  "Another thorn removed?" Karla observed.

  "And a problem added. I don't want to appoint any of the syndicate supervisors as acting principal for I feel an outsider is needed, not only this year but also at least half of next year. Niles has over six months of accumulated sick leave and is perfectly within his rights to use them up before he resigns. This will probably be at the end of the second term in June next year."

  "I can't do it," Karla decided to be blunt.

  "And I wouldn't expect you to but what about one of your syndicate leaders? They all run mini schools of two hundred and fifty pupils and Westview is half your size with five hundred or so on the roll. That's approximately the number of Year 7 and 8 pupils at this school so they would be used to the age group."

  "Why us? Aren't there other senior teachers or even retired principals like yourself who could be seconded?"

  "John Cosgrove's suggestion really. He said your methods are what we need at Westview and who better to implement them than someone who worked with you?" He grimaced.

  "Go on!" Karla was suspicious.

  "He's going to twist your arm to remain as an executive principal and visit the school say one morning a week to help the acting principal implement similar systems that you have here."

  "You are a crafty pair, aren't you?" Karla whispered as she ran a hand over her tummy. "There is one tiny problem."

  Stuart coughed almost in embarrassment. "John suggested that even if you were taking maternity leave you will probably be visiting this school to keep an eye on things and it wouldn't be too hard to do the same over there."

  "Sounds like John," Karla said. "Okay, even if I agreed to everything, what is going to happen in the short term? It will be impossible to have it all in place by Monday."

  "I will take the acting principal's position from Monday. There is really a conflict of interest with me being commissionaire so I wouldn't want to do it for more than a couple of weeks."

  "So you're aiming at having these secondments from the beginning of November?"

  "That would be a good date."

  Karla smiled. "Okay, my appointment will be subject to me having no problems with my pregnancy or birth but who do you want from my syndicate leaders? They could all do a good job over there. " This wasn't quite true but she felt she had to be fair to her staff.

  "Can I leave that to you?"

  "You can but I would prefer it if you choose. Why don’t you have a look at them in action yourself."

  "When?"

  "No time like the present. I'll introduce you as the Westview Commissioner at morning break and say you'll be strolling through. My staff are used to visitors in their rooms, as it is part of our open school policy." She smiled. "We'll keep that searching for a new boss over there under our hats, though. They'll be more relaxed than if they think they're being examined."

  Stuart smiled. "Why not?" he said.

  *

  After quite a long discussion the following Monday morning with Stuart in the Westview Intermediate principal's office, Karla took an opportunity to walk around the school. In contrast to her first visit, the school was hushed and students, dressed in a maroon and grey uniform were all working quietly when Stuart and herself walked into the rooms Most glanced up at her and continued their work unless the class teacher introduced her as the principal of Joseph Ward Junior High. Nobody commented on her advanced pregnancy though some of the girls smiled at her in a quiet way. Like at her own school, there were students from many cultures and races with European children counting for about sixty percent of the total, Chinese or Indian students about twenty percent each and a smaller number of Maori or Pacific Island children. Except for the older style classrooms, she could have easily been back at Joseph Ward.

  Mind you, she did notice nervousness from the teachers and some pupils. Also different were the charts and pictures around the classroom walls. Some were colourful but most appeared somewhat fundamental and more like ones she would expect in a high school with a few basic commercial charts or diagrams rather than showing the student's work. She would have loved to have a look at student exercise books and written work but decided that this was not the time or place to do this. She did though, talk to a few students who were working on iPads and found they were again similar to those at her school in their enthusiasm and they way they spoke.

  "They're so similar to the students at my school, it is uncanny," she said to Stuart after the tour "The teachers seemed nervous, though. Could that be because we represented authority figures ready to discipline them or was it because of Peter Niles' overbearing attitude?"

  Stuart grinned. "So you noticed that, too. I would say it is both. Those syndicate leaders in particular looked almost intimidated. I always picked that up when I was with the ERO team and it was usually in schools that had a weak or autocratic principal. Anyway, how will your young lady cope if she accepts the position?"

  "I think either of the two you liked will fit in well. They both have the personality to guide the staff rather than just give orders that appears to be what happened here."

  "So you'd like me to come across this afternoon?"

  "Yes, it'll give me time to talk to her before you arrive and formally offer her the position.

  *

  Back in the Joseph Ward staffroom for morning break, she walked across to Belinda Shaw who was chatting to Adrain Williamson while
they sipped coffee and munched muffins at a small corner table. They were always together now and Belinda seemed to be her old confident self but had a certain lonely look at times as if she missed her grandfather.

  Belinda and Adrain both turned and smiled at her and made the usual comment about the warm spring weather. However, when she did not move on it was Adrain who grinned.

  "Think about it anyway, Belinda," he said. "Whatever you'd like to do is fine with me."

  "Sorry, did I interrupt something personal?" Karla asked.

  "Not at all," Adrain replied. "I guess you want to talk to Belinda so I'll leave you both. See you!"

  "Bye," Belinda replied and turned to Karla. "Sorry. Adrain tries so hard to be kind he can almost be embarrassing at times."

  Karla grinned. "And why not? You've got a free period after interval I believe?"

  Belinda nodded. "Yes. My class goes to manual and I have release time."

  "Can we have a small chat in my office after interval."

  "Sure," Belinda replied. She looked curious rather than apprehensive but said no more.

  "Right, see you in about ten minutes." Karla moved away on the pretence of refilling her coffee mug but noticed that Adrian had rushed back to Belinda and she just shrugged after he asked her something. Both looked up at her across the room before he said something else and she chuckled and slapped his shoulder.

  When Belinda arrived in her office, Karla sat beside her and briefly explained the situation at Westview Intermediate. Belinda nodded but said nothing until she had finished.

  "So how does it affect me?" She sounded nervous.

  "I'll be frank," Karla said. "The commissioner there, Stuart McGrail and I have discussed about the situation there at length. I have reluctantly accepted the position as Executive Principal but hope to have a limited input. This afternoon he will be visiting to offer you the position as Acting Principal at Westview Intermediate until the end of Term 2, next year. That will be when Peter Niles officially resigns and the permanent position will be advertised"