Principal in the eye of the Covid storm
PM heaps praise on emergency teams’ response to tsunami threat
On Valentine’s Day morning, Vaughan Couillault and his wife went for a coastal walk to Maraetai.
“At about 11.30am when we got back, I received a phone call from the Ministry of Health,” says the Papatoetoe High School principal.
He guessed it was Covid. A Year 9 student and her parents had tested positive. Dr Ashley Bloomfield planned to announce it at 1.45pm.
“Between 11.45 and 1.15, I had communications from Auckland Regional Public Health around, ‘This is how you’re going to word it’. So I had a release that I was able to send out to families at 1.15pm,” he says.
For three weeks, Couillault has been the public face of the “Valentine’s Day cluster” — standing at the school gate as students and families queued for Covid tests, updating families with the fastchanging health advice, organising students’ online learning, and answering calls and emails from students, families, staff, officials and the media.
“Between February 14 and 28, I sent in excess of 70,000 text messages from my phone,” he says.
He has taken calls from Bloomfield, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern thanking him for leading his community through the trauma.
Principals’ Federation president Perry Rush, perhaps with an eye on Couillault being about to take over as president of the Secondary Principals’ Association, wrote in his weekly newsletter: “Thank you, Vaughan. You have exemplified the strong and authoritative leadership that from time to time is required of principals.”
Couillault’s roots in his community go deep. He grew up in Old Papatoetoe, attended Papatoetoe South Primary and Kedgley Intermediate, and was head boy of Papatoetoe High in 1988. He returned to Papatoetoe High for his first five years out of teachers’ college, and again as associate principal from 2008 to 2012, before returning as principal in 2016.
Some of his closest friends are ex-schoolmates. When he and Vanessa recently sold their house to move to Beachlands, the real estate agent was an old school pal.
Couillault was born in London, 50 years ago this May. But his mother came from Matamata and took her new family to New Zealand 18 months after Vaughan was born.
His father was a business development manager and Couillault himself did a commerce degree at Auckland University, planning to become an accountant. But he changed his mind when a Papatoetoe High School teacher, also a housemaster at Dilworth School, offered him a job as a live-in tutor at Dilworth in his first year at university. He lived there for the next eight years, first as a tutor and then as a housemaster.
The time, 1989-96, was when many events allegedly took place that led to sexual abuse charges being laid against several staff, but Couillault says, “There was nothing that was apparent to me.”
Instead, he was inspired by the philanthropic Christian school’s philosophy of “transforming lives” of boys “in straitened circumstances”.
“I realised that I wanted to go to teachers’ college and become a teacher,” he says.
He taught commerce. He moved from Papatoetoe High to become head of commerce at Mt Roskill Grammar, then deputy principal at Manurewa High School, associate principal at Pakuranga College and then associate principal at Papatoetoe High.
Aged 41, he got his first principal’s job at Manurewa’s James Cook High School in 2012.
The school was part of Russell Bishop’s Te Kotahitanga programme, which aimed to help teachers understand and relate to Ma¯ori students as Ma¯ori.
Couillault says it was a “nobrainer” to join the next stage of the programme. He credited Te Kotahitanga for a jump in the school’s Year 11 NCEA Level 1 pass rate from 47 per cent of participating students in 2012 to 95 per cent in 2014.
A 2016 review by the NZ Qualifications Authority found the school had broken the rules by withdrawing students who tried for NCEA standards but were marked “not achieved”, making it look as if they had not even tried. But Couillault says this happened after he left in February 2016.
When Couillault attended Papatoetoe High in the 1980s, it was predominantly European. That has changed. Only 3 per cent of the 1430 students last July were European; 50 per cent were Asian, 26 per cent Pasifika and 17 per cent Ma¯ori. “We are hyper-diverse now,” he says.
Muslim teachers run a Friday prayer group for Muslim students. A Christian teacher runs a Christian prayer group.
Papatoetoe High School was initially closed for two days when that first Valentine’s Day case was found and all staff and students were asked to get tested for Covid.
That advice was superseded the same night when Cabinet imposed level 3 restrictions in Auckland for three days, shutting all schools except for children who could not be supervised at home.
On February 17 two more students tested positive and the school was closed for the rest of the week.
Next day the school said students would need proof of a negative Covid test before returning. By February 22, when it reopened, 41 had not yet returned a negative result.
“Some were not able to leave younger siblings they were looking after. Some hadn’t got around to it. There were a few people going, ‘No, I don’t want to have a test but I’m happy to isolate for 14 days.’
“From what I can gather, between Auckland Regional Public Health and us, I think there was one by the middle of last week. Not one student returned who had not had a negative test.”
Language was also an issue for at least two of the families who caught Covid: “I understand from Auckland Regional Public Health that English was not spoken in those homes.”
The mothers in the two families who went for a walk together had not broken the rules deliberately.
When Ardern said the families faced the nation’s judgment, and National’s Chris Bishop called for rule-breakers to be fined, Couillault urged understanding.
“These people are remorseful, they are down, they are sick — they have got Covid.
“I understand the frustration, the view that they should have done this or they shouldn’t have done that, but it doesn’t make them bad people. It makes them human. And our job as a member of the community is to support those in need when people are in need, irrespective of the causes.”
Couillault has received nasty emails. One said: “I can’t believe you are defending these people who didn’t get tested, and I hope you suffer like my friend who is going through chemotherapy.
“But for every email like that, I’ve had 30 saying you’re amazing,” he says. “The depth of empathy that has been shown to my school has made me really proud of the community that I serve.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it’s hard not to feel like New Zealand is having a run of bad luck, with residents waking up yesterday to a tsunami alert amid the Covid-19 restrictions.
The tsunami alert was triggered after three quakes — the first, of 7.3 magnitude struck about 2.30am yesterday just off the east coast of the North Island. The second was 7.4 magnitude near the Kermadec Islands at 6.41am, and the third was a magnitude-8.1 quake near the Kermadec Islands at 8.28am.
At 3.45pm, the National Emergency Management Agency cancelled all the tsunami warnings.
“As I walked into the Beehive bunker, where we undertake our Civil Defence emergency coordination, two things struck me. First that it’s hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck when you have an earthquake, tsunami alert and pandemic to contend with all in one day,” Ardern said in a briefing yesterday afternoon.
But she says walking past images of past natural disasters plastered on the walls of the bunker, she realised the efforts of Civil Defence teams.
“We have had our share of tough moments in this country, but within that we have always been blessed incredible people who work in our emergency system.”
Emergency Management Minister Kiritapu Allan says there have been multiple aftershocks after the initial quakes.
“A tsunami was generated with the first waves reaching Aotearoa in the areas around Lottin Point near Hicks Bay.
“At the time of the event, the National Emergency Management Agency had already activated the national co-ordination centre here due to the Covid-19 resurgence. Additional resources were brought in to respond to this tsunami event in the early hours.”
She thanked all those who did the right thing and evacuated when they felt the long and strong quake in the early hours as well as service people.
“This has been a significant event for all of Aotearoa.
“That means now people can return home. I guess we say this with one word of caution — whilst there is no longer restrictions on being able to go down into the beach, please do exercise prudent judgement. We are still asking people to take care.”
Alert defended
The government’s emergency response body is defending a decision to not send out a widespread mobile phone alert, saying only those living in the path of a potential tsunami needed warning.
After a frightening start to the day yesterday, there’s concern residents in the path of the potential tsunami on the eastern coastline did not get alerts on their phones or hear sirens warning them of the looming danger.
Civil Defence in quake-affected North Island regions are also coming under fire for posting confusing messages to people looking for direction immediately after yesterday’s severe 7.1 tremor struck off the east coast of the North Island at 2.27am.
But National Emergency Management Agency communications manager Anthony Frith said emergency mobile alerts were sent out
and were geographically targeted to specific areas where there was a land threat of potential flooding in place. That meant yesterday’s alert was sent to areas where people needed to evacuate, said Frith.
“We only issue emergency mobile alerts to those areas because we don’t need to wake people up in the middle of the night for a beach and marine advisory.”
He said people in beachside settlements of Papamoa or Opo¯tiki did not get the warning because there was no need for residents to The early morning alert was broadcast on mobile phones from East Cape to Tolaga Bay.
“If people were in the area with mobile coverage and they had a compatible phone and live in that area they should have got it.”
He praised people for taking initiative and going to higher ground after the long and strong quake.
He said while the NEMA issued tsunami alerts, it was the local civil
defence who would issue locally explicit evacuation advice.
One Hawke’s Bay resident said the local Civil Defence Facebook page noted the quake in a post but said it was unlikely to pose a tsunami threat. That led to many people expressing frustration — with people referring to government messaging that if a quake is long or strong, get gone.
Up to 30 minutes later the post was edited to match the national Civil Defence advice to take refuge on higher ground if you were in coastal communities.
Bay of Plenty Civil Defence confirmed an emergency mobile alert had been issued by the national agency warning of coastal flooding in the east coast of the North Island from the east of Cape Runaway to Tolaga Bay.
But not everyone in the tsunami zone reported getting the alert — and others in the South Island got up to 17 warnings.
Auckland-based smart drink maker Arepa ¯ is looking to raise $5 million on the back of a deal with Coles Supermarkets in Australia.
Founder and chief executive Angus Brown says the Coles deal will help his profit-making company boost revenue from $2m last year to around $6m this year.
After A¯ repa raises capital, in two to three months’ time, it will use the funds for further international expansion, Brown says.
A¯ repa can count the All Blacks among its customers. It’s not a sponsorship arrangement. Various members of the team just choose to drink it because they think it’s good.
Brown says he’s fielding more international inquiries following the Coles deal which “will double our revenue overnight”.
His outlook on the beverage industry wasn’t always so bright.
“I’d come out of university and my first job [in 2011] was selling energy drinks,” Brown says.
It turned out to be something of a long dark night of the soul.
“Previous to that I’d lost a friend to mental health. And during my first year selling these energy drinks, I’d lost two grandparents to brain-related illness,” Brown says.
One had dementia, the other a stroke.
“I was selling caffeine and sugar, which I knew wasn’t good for people.
“And so I started to think: why can’t we develop something that’s good for your brain?”
He put his idea to his employer, but there was no interest.
After just over a year, he decamped to the NZ Food Innovation Network’s Foodbowl — a research and development-cumbusiness incubator for the food and beverage industry in industrial
Ma¯ ngere, backed by Crown agency Callaghan Innovation.
Brown worked days as Foodbowl’s business development manager, while in his spare time taking advantage of its facilities and advisers to develop his own “nootropic” or smart drink product, A¯ repa — which would be later joined by power, capsule and freeze-dried berry supplements.
The young entrepreneur had an idea of the ingredients he wanted to use, including blackcurrants after Crown Research Institute Rangahau Ahuma¯ ra Kai (Plant & Food Research) highlighted a study that found “compounds found in New Zealand blackcurrants increased mental performance indicators, such as accuracy, attention and mood” and “could have potential in managing the mental decline associated with ageing populations, or helping people with brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or depression”.
And pine-bark extract was also on his radar as a healthier alertness and pick-me-up alternative to
Chris Keall
caffeine.
But with a degree in accounting and finance, and a career in sales, Brown wasn’t equipped to formulate a recipe. For that, he forked over an Auckland house deposit-sized sum to a worldrenowned expert — Professor Andrew Scholey, director of the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology at Melbourne’s Swinburne University.
Scholey has advised the UK and Canadian governments on health policy. He’s also had more than 250 research papers published and received more than $25m in research funding.
The Weekend Herald found the beverage brewed from Scholey’s recipe perfectly quaffable — like the once-ubiquitous Ribena with
milder natural sweeteners rather than the 70s staple of overwhelming sugar. A three-pack costs $17.99. A jar of Nuroberry or freeze-dried blackcurrants ($41.95) proved harder going in themselves, with a sour dry nature that one NZME staffer quipped had in fact induced depression, but go well with smoothies or yoghurt and muesli. A¯ repa also pitches them as an ingredient for “raw baking”, if that’s your bag.
Brown left the Foodbowl to devote all his time to A¯ repa in 2018.
He says since then the company has spent some $700,000 on research and development.
And the CEO is also on a constant mission to bolster his company’s “neuroscience, not pseudo-science” tagline.
April saw the publication of a study by four Auckland University academics, who assessed the impact of A¯ repa on various members of the Vodafone Warriors in a double-blind, controlled trial that saw some players receive a placebo.
They found, “This small scale, short-term study resulted in a significant increase in cognitive function scores of rugby league players after one week of BC+ supplementation [BC+ being the researcher’s shorthand for A¯ repa’s key ingredients of blackcurrant, pine-bark and l-theanine — an amino acid found in black tea]. These promising results suggests BC+ supplementation in a sporting setting may be beneficial. This study justifies the need for a longer-term, larger-scale, and more sensitive investigation.”
And more investigation there shall be. Scholey has just returned his focus to the Kiwi startup, this time in a consulting role that will see him advise on R&D.
Over the next year, A¯ repa plans to spend $3m supporting clinical research, overseen by Scholey, that will tackle questions around how food can enhance and protect the brain, including from mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
A key point of interest is whether A¯ repa can claim that its products inhibit the MAO (monoamine oxidase) enzymes associated with depression and the onset of Parkinson’s disease. There are MAO-B inhibitor drugs today that are used as antidepressants or to slow the onset of dementia, but Brown is looking for evidence to sustain the claim his company’s products can achieve the same effects naturally, without the nasty side effects that can accompany the pharmaceutical alternative.
Scholey told the Weekend
Herald that results from earlier studies have opened the possibility that could be the case.
It could prove a health breakthrough and, of course, a business breakthrough if stressed white-collar workers and flagging sportspeople¯everywhere start to reach for an Arepa rather than a Red Bull.
“We want to be New Zealand’s next high-value food and beverage export — like Rockit Apple is right now or Comvita was in its heyday,” Brown says.
I was selling caffeine and sugar, which I knew wasn’t good for people. And so I started to think: why can’t we develop something that’s good for your brain?
Angus Brown (left), A¯ repafounder