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Karla recognised the voice on the phone as soon as the man spoke.
"John Cosgrove from the Ministry of Education speaking. Hear you're really stirring things up down there."
Karla grinned. "Hi there, John. What have you got cooked up for me now?"
"Oh come now, can't one just call up for a chat."
"One can but you don't, do you?"
"Well since you brought it up, there is one little job you could do for us since you are already in the area."
"I knew it. No, I am not going to leave Tuckett and move to some non-functioning intermediate school in Dunedin or Christchurch. I'll finish my contact here and return home to Tui Park in Wellington."
John laughed. "No, it's really just a bit of an add on. How does the handle of Executive Principal sound?"
"Ominous but what is different?"
"You continue at Tuckett Area School but if the need arises you could be called in to help at other Otago rural schools who seek help or are referred onto us by The Education Review Office who consider intervention is necessary."
"And another fifty thousand salary?"
"I'm afraid not but all expenses such as travel or accommodation plus a daily bonus when you're at these schools will be paid."
"I see, and there just happens to be a school not too far from Tuckett that needs this intervention?"
"Actually there is and it's only an hour or so up the road from you. No need to even be away over night. Your time at Top Plateau School makes you just the person who can help."
Top Plateau was the country school where Karla was principal before she won the position at Tui Park. "Go on..." she said.
"Heard of Honeyburn?"
"No."
"It's a sole-charge school tucked away in the hills off the highway between you and Alexandra."
"Lazy principal?"
"No, quite the opposite, I would say. More a conservative board who haven't moved into the twenty-first century yet and personality clashes."
"A bit like the board here?"
"Probably. If you're interested, I'll email your appointment to you."
Karla sighed. She didn't really want more problems. "I'm not keen," she said. "However, give me the details and I'll consider it."
"Thanks Karla. You'll probably get a call from Mia Cowan, that's Honeyburn School's principal. I told her you might help her."
"That's presumptuous of you," Karla muttered. "Okay, I'll hear her out but promise you nothing."
"Fair enough. Give me a call when you decide."
"I shall," Karla replied. She clicked off and grimaced. Was it worthwhile getting involved in more problems?
*
THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY after another stiff frost it was a clear and sunny early afternoon and Karla was enjoying time with Alexis on their tiny front lawn when a car pulled up to the kerb and a woman in her twenties climbed out. She wore a woollen jersey and slacks, was slim and had brunette hair pulled back in a ponytail. It was her manner that made Karla interested for the woman walked up to the gate, hesitated and turned away.
"Lovely winter's day," Karla smiled slightly as she lifted Alexis and stepped towards the front fence.
The woman stopped and turned. "Yes it is." She again looked hesitant and almost embarrassed.
"Can I help you with directions or something?" Karla asked.
"A friend told me that the Tuckett Area School Executive Principal lived here. Can you direct me to her place, please?"
"I'm Karla Spicer and the person you're looking for. How can I help you?"
The woman flushed. "Sorry, I was expecting someone middle-aged not a young mother..."
"This is Alexis, my daughter. And you are?"
"Oh I'm sorry. John Cosgrove from the Ministry of Education recommended that I contact you and I decided to drive here rather than just call on the phone."
Karla smiled. "You're Mia Cowan from Honeyburn School?"
The woman relaxed a little. "I am."
"Come on in Mia. Ryan, that's my husband is out at the moment watching a rugby game down at the local field. I was just about going to put the kettle on and have a coffee so why not join me?"
She escorted the other teacher indoors and found her initial impression was that of a somewhat proud but uncertain person who had swallowed her pride in coming to her.
Mia chattered with Alexis for a few moments and impressed Karla with her approach of not being gushy but relaxed with the little girl as she asked after her teddy bear. Alexis was shy at first but soon chatted back. After more small talk with the pair of them Mia hesitated again.
"It's okay," Karla said. "You're here and I think that was a big step on your behalf."
"As I said, I expected middle-aged woman but there you were playing with your dear little girl." She sighed. "John did say you'd be different from an old high school ma'am."
Karla laughed. "Sounds like John. Look, have another muffin, Alexis still has a bit of an afternoon nap. I'll put her down and we can chat. How does that sound?" She noticed tears in Mia's eyes.
"The kids at Honeyburn are lovely hard working country types. It's the adults who are the problem.
"That is often the case but start at the beginning and tell me as much as you wish. There's no hurry. We have all afternoon."
"Thanks Karla." Mia blew her nose wiped her eyes and began her account of life at Honeyburn School.
*
MIA ZIPPED UP HER COAT and pulled on gloves before she stepped out of the schoolhouse and studied the veranda thermometer. The air temperature was five below zero, Celsius so there would be a twelve-degree frost. She turned off the house lights and crunched across the frosty grass with her torch cutting a beam of light through the morning darkness. Though still only a little past seven she liked to get to school early to light the potbellied wood-burner and have the classroom warm by the time the children arrived from eight fifteen on.
At school, she switched on the lights and heater in the tiny staffroom and turned on the water boiler above the kitchen-type sink that boiled hot water for the coffee she would have after lighting the classroom heater. After the fire was lit she returned to the staffroom, took out the toaster and bread she had there and prepared breakfast. It was easier to have it here than at home. Half an hour later the classroom was reasonably warm as she began preparing charts, mark books and change the daily timetable on the whiteboard ready for the fifteen children, aged from five to twelve, to follow. It helped to be organised and have everything ready for the children's day.
Morning shadows across the playground from the morning sunlight showed the full extent of the hoarfrost, now in its third day. This was when the day never became warm enough to melt the frost before afternoon temperatures dropped again and froze everything. There was a particular icicle hanging from the gutter of the nearby woodshed that was longer every day and still had not dropped off. This was her first winter at Honeyburn and she was still fascinated by the beauty of the freezing conditions.
A knock on the classroom door made her glance up in mild surprise for she was not expecting anyone for another twenty minutes and had seen nobody coming down the pathway. She relaxed when she saw who had walked in. It was Wyatt Setton, the board member who also took the responsibility for school grounds and maintenance as part time groundsman. She liked Wyatt who was really the only person on the Honeyburn Board of Trustees who seemed to care for the children and their progress. The others were landowners who, it appeared to her often competed in trying to show their authority over everything. She guessed that running large farms with workers under their control and decisions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars made them business managers. However, did they always have to have an overbearing attitude when running the school? Also the multi-generational rivalry between the Stewarts and McKelveys didn't help. In contrast, Wyatt ran the only retail outlet in town, Honeyburn Traders a store across the road from the school that sold everything from groceries to farm supplies and had petrol and diesel pumps on the kerb. It also had post office boxes and facilities though she heard that they would be closed soon.
"Hello Wyatt." she said. "Why the early visit?"
"Mornin' Mia. Saw your lights on early as usual. Brought you the paper." He placed a copy of Otago Daily Times on a desk. "Want to come and look at the tennis court?"
"Worse is it?"
"Yes!"
One of the major expenses the school had undertaken against her advice not long after her arrival was to reseal the tennis court with a rubberised all-weather surface. In fact it was really for the local tennis players who ran a district competition over the summer with the needs of the children of minor importance. The forty thousand cost had been shared between the board and the local Honeyburn Hall Committee that owned the local hall. In reality the same people were on both committees with the administrative setup so the hall could get district council funding that wouldn't be provided for if the hall and tennis court were directly controlled through the school's board of trustees.
Mia slipped into her coat and followed Wyatt outside. She could see two sets of footprints across the grass, her own from the house and the other from a side gate where Wyatt had walked in and across the frozen court.
"See," he said and nodded at several zigzag cracks across the frost-covered asphalt.
The surface was breaking up in the freezing conditions and the cracks were twice the length from only a couple of days before. "It looks bad," she said. "What happens now?"
Wyatt shrugged. "Nothing until spring. When the weather warms the ground water will rise and undermine the whole court. Come summer, it'll begin to crumble and unless expensive repairs are undertaken I doubt if much tennis will be played here next season."
"Didn't you warn them that this was a possibility?"
"I did but you know them by now. Can't be told, can they?"
"But we're already in debt and just shifting money back and forth between the board of trustee's accounts and the hall committee does nothing except perhaps hide things from the auditors."
"It's worse I'm afraid. The Central Otago District Council has come into the act and cut their grant to the hall committee in half. They said and I actually agree with them that the tennis courts are not part of the hall maintenance budget." He sighed. "I think the chickens have come home to roost."
*
WYATT'S REPORT AT THE Honeyburn Board of Trustees about the condition of the tennis court was greeted with grim silence. Mia was the only female there and cast a quick glance at the five men. There were two sets of brothers Henry and Matthew Stewart and Riley and Leo McKelvie as well as Wyatt and herself on the board. The farmers were all dressed in conservative somewhat old-fashioned clothes with ties and white shirts beneath sports coats from a bygone era. Only Wyatt was dressed in a more casual weatherproof jacket and jeans. In keeping with what they expected, she always wore a skirt to these meetings but still wore warm slacks at school.
"So we get back to the contractors," Henry mumbled.
"I tried," Wyatt replied. "Their contract specifically states the guarantee is only on workmanship."
"So?" Henry queried.
"It does not cover the materials used unless they purposely used inferior products."
"And they have," Matthew cut in.
"We selected the quality that they used and failed to read the small print. It stated that there was a ten-year guarantee but only in conditions between two and thirty-five degrees Celsius. Our three weeks of below freezing ground temperatures negates the guarantee." Wyatt glanced up. "The bank is also threatening foreclosure on our loan as we have not paid the interest for three months."
"So?" scoffed Leo. "What are they going to do? Get a truck in and take the asphalt away?" He switched his eyes to Mia. "I told you to stop the kids using the court for skateboarding and those rollerblades earlier in the year. I reckon they helped to cut up the surface. It is a tennis court, you know?"
Mia was angry. "And how many children at school actually play tennis?" she asked and answered her own question. "The two older ones. Also Leo, if I remember it is your children who loved rollerblading, especially little Isabelle when she brought her new ones to school after her birthday."
"Okay but what about now? Seeing those kids sliding around on those plastic toboggans. They caused the cracking, not the cold weather. Damn dangerous. You're lucky someone hasn't broken an arm."
The meeting continued with mumbles and mutters about just about everything from one complaining that the Early Settlers Day she had planned to have with the children dressing up to complaints about her approach to math.
"You are encroaching on the professional management of the school." Wyatt stepped in to defend Mia. "That is something else the ERO team warned about on their last visit."
"What the hell," Leo swore. "They roar in once every three years, tell us what is socially correct and disappear for another three years. I tell you they know nothing about what the children in rural New Zealand need to be taught."
Mia was attempted to retaliate but stopped herself. What was the use! She had planned to ask them to buy two iPads for the school but knew that in the present climate it would be voted down due to lack of finance. She did though, ask for money for new readers and pointed out that with two pre-schoolers arriving soon and three other younger pupils, they were needed.
They muttered but agreed to let her spend half the money she had asked for then straight afterwards approved twice the amount to get the back fence behind the football field replaced. It was always the same with the physical surroundings more important than educational spending.
"Are there any final items," Riley the chairman asked an hour later.
"Just a letter from the m Ministry of Education," Mia said. "It was sent to myself as principal and not this board but out of courtesy I'm passing the information on. " She glanced around. "You may have heard about what is happening at Tuckett Area School..."
"Brought in a woman to get Don Trow sacked," Matthew replied. "From what I heard he deserves getting the boot. I heard the silly bugger has huge gambling debts."
"But go on," one of the others said.
"We're being visited by a Mr John Cosgrove doing a feasibility study."
"Of what?" someone else asked.
"The Ministry is considering adding selected country schools in Otago to a new monitoring and professional help programme."
"Tell him we don't need any help," Leo retorted
Mia glanced up and saw Wyatt's eyes. He said nothing but his expression showed that he agreed with her that Honeyburn did need help, and needed it now rather than later.
*
"I STOOD MY GROUND CONTINUED with my math programme and had the Early Settlers Day," Mia said to Karla when she finished her account of the troubles at the school. "The children loved it and even some of the mothers took part. They came dressed up and cooked an old style meal on our potbelly heater. It's just the little things that get to me and wear me down. Oh I don't know if you can do anything but even listening to me now has helped."
"I'll come and spend a day with you," Karla said. "How about this Wednesday?"
"So soon?"
"Why not? I'd like to meet Wyatt, too. He sounds a real friend of the school."
Mia nodded. "A couple of the mothers are quite supportive too but they come from farm workers families who have little say on the board. There's quite a lot of class snobbery there between the landowners and the workers."
"Does it overflow into school?"
"Not really. There are only fifteen of us and when no adults are around we're like a big family. I think some of the kids change as soon as they walk in the gate."
*
ON WEDNESDAY, KARLA arrived at Honeyburn a little after ten to find it had recently snowed and the village looked like an English Christmas Card. There were several houses, the store and hall that were all snow covered. A layer of smoke from half a dozen smoking chimneys floated across the area. The snow covered school consisted of single classroom that in many ways reminded her of Top Plateau School before the old building had burned down. Though old, there were modern windows and a veranda built along the sunny side with coats, jackets and boots lined up neatly on pegs or under a seat stretched along the wall. Pulled curtains hid everyone inside. Footprints were everywhere across the frosty playground. She noticed that the tennis court was roped off and was covered by untrodden snow. In contrast, a field to the left had several snowmen built and signs of much activity. She smiled for it appeared that Mia had continued on with enthusiasm in spite of the Honeyburn Board of Trustees.
As she climbed out of the car she noticed a man walking across the road from Honeyburn Traders. He stopped before her and held out his hand. "Mrs Karla Spicer, our district's executive principal, I believe?"
"Why yes," Karla replied as they shook hands.
"I'm Wyatt Setton from the school's board of trustees."
"Pleased to meet you Wyatt. Mia has mentioned how you supported her."
"Yeah," he said. "I won't hold you up but would just like to say that she is the best teacher we've had here in years." He frowned. "Most don't stay long. In the last decade we've had six changes. They come in young and full of enthusiasm but are soon discouraged. I try to help but..." He shrugged. "She's our first woman but contrary to local opinions when she arrived, has done better than all her predecessors."
"Why was she selected, Wyatt?"
"No men applied. It seems that not many males are coming into the primary service any more." He coughed. "Just go easy on her, Mrs Spicer. She's valued here by most of us." He grinned. "That's all I have to say. I've heard about the wonderful work you're doing over at Tuckett."
Karla watched as he walked back across the road, turned and waved before disappearing into his shop. She walked in a small porch and knocked on the classroom door. A girl who would be eleven or twelve almost immediately opened it.
"Good morning Ma'am," she said in a formal voice. "I am Lillian Stewart. Miss Cowan is reading the juniors a story at the moment. Can I give her a message?"
"Hello Lillian. Will you tell Miss Cowan that Mrs Spicer has arrived?"
The girl grinned. "From Tuckett Area School?"
Karla nodded as Lillian turned and yelled across the room. "Mia, she's here! Shall I ask her in?"
"Of course," came the reply.
Lillian turned. "We're doing a snow project so the room's a bit of a mess. Did you see our snowmen?"
"I did and thought they looked great."
"The seniors are writing stories for the juniors about snowmen." She stepped back and held the door open. "Please come in."
Inside, the fifteen children all continued working with barely a glance up. Half a dozen little ones were sitting on the carpet where Mia held up a picture book that showed a snow scene while the rest of the pupils were either writing or drawing pictures on paper. One boy had an iPad going that, on closer inspection showed another snow scene.
"You know what to do," Mia said to her group. "I'll finish the story later."
"Yes Mia," they said and all ran across to desks where paper and art material was waiting. Several grinned at her and one little girl waved.
Mia looked a little flushed as she came up to Karla. "It snowed last night so I took advantage of it. Normally we'd be doing more formal work at this time of the day."
"And why not?" Karla asked
Mia nodded. "Welcome. All my records and preparation are on my desk for you to look at. I received a formal email from the Ministry of Education outlining what an executive principal wanted to see." She chuckled. "Sorry. My grandad was a schoolteacher and used to tell me that in his day there were school inspectors who would visit schools and grade teachers. The teachers were nervous and the children terrified. Funny, your visit brought back everything he told me."
"Well, I'm not one of them," Karla glanced around at the bright room with art, charts and children's work everywhere. One corner was set up for the little ones, another for the middle school and across the back were two computers and senior work. The school catered for Year 1 to 8 pupils and appeared to have children of all those ages present. When a potbellied wood burner began roaring in the corner, one boy immediately went across and turned it down.
"Want more wood, Mia?" he asked.
"Please, Liam," she replied.
Karla smiled. The whole classroom felt warm and welcoming with an atmosphere of relaxed learning. She was impressed and told Mia exactly that.
Mia looked serious. "If only the board would see it that way."
"Wyatt does," Karla replied. "He came across and introduced himself when I arrived."
"Did he?" Mia whispered. "If it wasn't for him I would have left months ago."
*
KARLA STAYED ALL DAY and enjoyed her visit. Her first impressions were confirmed when she saw Mia's planning and evaluation that was almost too thorough. She must spend hours on schoolwork.
After three, several cars pulled up and the children all ran out and almost dragged their mothers and in one case a father across to see the snowmen that had been added to over the lunch break. A few spoke briefly to her and everyone was gone.
"This is when I usually have a coffee," Mia said. "Sally, that's my teacher's aide, is here a couple of times a week and chats away. Also, Ellie, Wyatt's wife, drops over if she sees that no visitors are here." She grinned. "I think I told you that I love the children and teaching. If only..." She pouted.
"You're a talented teacher and conscientious administrator," Karla said. "I'm going to send a letter to your board telling them just that."
"Thank you," Mia responded. "Will you come back?"
"If you would like me to, yes and I will be available any time you need help. Your main problem of course is your board and I'll be telling John Cosgrove that. I think he'll ask the ERO team to visit them for an accountability review and if they don't improve he'll probably dissolve them and bring in a government appointed commissionaire to get the school out of it debt. That is not up to me."
*