[Anglican Taonga by Lloyd Ashton] “Don’t listen to what we say.

“See what we do.”

That’s the message that Stephen Jacobi, the new chairman of the new Te Aute Trust Board, wants Maori mums and dads – in fact, anyone who has ties to Te Aute College and Hukarere Girls’ College – to take on board.

Judge us by our actions, in other words.

Stephen chairs the St John’s College Trust Board which, at the request of Te Pihopatanga, has taken over the trusteeship of the two iconic but debt-ravaged Hawkes Bay boarding schools.

The schools had been in imminent danger of closure – they were drowning under $9.5 million of compounding bank debt, and the Te Aute College hostels are in dire need of refurbishment which will cost at least $2 million.

Now, with the financial strength and investment acumen of the SJCTB/new TATB behind them, the two schools will not only stabilise, and get back on an even keel, financially speaking – the schools will become, in short order, healthier, more pleasant places for students...

And the schools will become more reassuring environments to which Maori mums and dads, koro and nannies can send their tamariki and mokopuna.

And that restored confidence will translate into bigger school roles.

That's the new TATB's thinking, anyway.

Changes for the better

Yesterday, the St John’s College Trust Board held a short meeting at Hukarere Girls’ College in Eskdale. After it had dealt with its SJCTB business, it reconvened as the new Te Aute Trust Board, and made some immediate decisions.

It approved $300,000 worth of spending on things that will immediately improve the quality of life for the students at both schools.

“We took a number of decisions,” said Mr Jacobi, “about things like better heating, better insulation, some renovations – and we’ve made some contributions towards the special character of the schools. The students will see an immediate change.

“Obviously, we know that the schools require a lot of reinvestment. Some of those things can’t be done overnight. But other things can be done straightaway.

“A few weeks ago, I was the Hukarere whanau day, and I said the same thing to parents: that as the result of our trusteeship, they would see an immediate change.

“I said to them: ‘Don’t just listen to what we say. See what we do.’”

Mr Jacobi said the new Te Aute Trust Board is committed to pumping $4 million into the fabric of the two schools – as well as dealing to the accumulated $9.5 million debt.

A new Huk chapel - at last

That $4 million investment will include not only making the Te Aute hostels shipshape – but also building a new chapel at Hukarere.

Ever since Hukarere relocated to Eskdale from Napier, it has had to make do without a chapel. When the college meets for worship – as it did yesterday – the girls meet in the spartan surrounds of the school gym, with an altar poked away in a side alcove.

Meanwhile, the taonga from the old Hukarere chapel – the whakairo (carvings), the tukutuku panels and the roof panels adorned with kowhaiwhai painting – have been locked away for years, safe but unable to be savoured, in two containers in the school grounds.

“We have undertaken to whanau,” said Mr Jacobi, “to build a new chapel.

“And have set up a project group to manage that task.

“This is all stuff we know we’ve got to do. We know that. So what we’ve done today is get started.”

Seeing is believing

Stephen Jacobi said the reason that the board had met ‘on site’ yesterday was so that the trustees could see, first hand, what their task is:

“Our advisors have begun work on all of these things,” he says.

“But of course, seeing is believing.

“And it is important for us to be seen and understood – and for us as trustees to get the wairua.”

After their time at Hukarere, the trustees drove the 45 minutes south to Te Aute College, where a powhiri was held at Te Whare o Rangi, the college wharenui – before the trustees, their hosts and the assembled boys wandered up the hill that overlooks Te Aute’s playing fields to worship in the picturesque Te Aute chapel.

Both this church’s Kiwi archbishops, Brown Turei, and Philip Richardson are (by virtue of their membership of the St John’s College Trust Board) also now Te Aute Trust Board trustees.

Both present throughout the day, too, along with all the other trustees, who are elected from the three tikanga.

Stephen Jacobi likes what that three tikanga presence at both schools symbolised:

“This is the whole church,” he said, “coming together to help these schools.”