O’Sullivan: Put school on shore site
Prominent doctor Lance O’Sullivan wants to shift the Vanguard military school on to the vacant Hato Petera College site in Northcote, and wants his own Moko Foundation to reopen a hostel there for Ma¯ori boys.
O’Sullivan, a former Hato Petera student, has produced videos telling the stories of four Vanguard students in an effort to stop Parliament passing a bill to abolish charter schools such as the military academy.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins gave approval in May for Vanguard to become a designated character state school from next year and to expand from its existing 192 students in Years 11 to 13 to a full secondary school with up to 312 students across Years 9 to 13.
“The new school will initially be . . . at the site of the current school, while the ministry works with the Establishment Board of Trustees to locate a permanent site,” he said then.
O’Sullivan said he told Hipkins about his proposal to bring Vanguard on to the Hato Petera site just before Hipkins announced Hato Petera’s closure on August 31.
A spokesman for Hipkins confirmed O’Sullivan outlined the plan at a Hawke’s Bay principals’ conference at Wairakei on August 30, but said Hipkins was “non-committal” about it.
O’Sullivan had already proposed that the Hato Petera site should be used for a hostel for Ma¯ori students attending other schools in the area, on the model of Auckland Grammar School’s InZone hostel in Epsom.
O’Sullivan discussed his plans yesterday with representatives of Nga¯ti Paoa, the original owners of the Northcote site, and said they were “very supportive of this proposal”.
He had not yet discussed it with the Catholic Church, which now owns the site, or the Ministry of Education.