\u201cHe\u2019s dealt with a lot of principals who haven\u2019t when they should have, and their retirement life was pretty depressing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in my life, I followed his advice.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite coming from a family of teachers, a young Haggo had never considered becoming one himself until his mum, who he describes as a \u201cpocket rocket\u201d, asked him what his future plans were.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said: \u2018my mate Paul and I are going to get on our motorbikes and go on a bit of a cruise\u2019 and Mum said \u2018no, you\u2019re not doing that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
She filled out the application forms for teachers\u2019 college despite his protestations that he wouldn\u2019t do well at the interview because he wasn\u2019t interested. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe said \u2018that\u2019s okay because I know two of the three people on the panel\u2019, so that\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo described his first lesson as far from inspirational, but his second, a lesson about adrenaline, had a bigger impact.<\/p>\n
He could sense the students were drifting, so he thwacked a metal ruler on a desk, giving everyone in the room, including the supervising teacher sitting at the back, a good, practical demonstration about its effects. <\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the teacher yell out \u2018holy shit, what was that?\u2019 at which the kids burst into laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo\u2019s first teaching job was at Greerton School, and he later moved to Te Kuiti. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the best thing I ever did because I really learned how to teach and started to get a bit of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time of his next move, Tomorrow\u2019s Schools had ushered in the era of Boards of Trustees and, after being interviewed for a role at Pillans Point School and waiting in the staff room, he saw a job advertised at Te Puna School in the Education Gazette.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rang the principal, and he invited me out, and I ended up teaching at Te Puna, not at Pilllans Point. I loved it and stayed there for four or five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo\u2019s next move was to Katikati Primary School as deputy principal. <\/p>\n
Used to turning up at school wearing Levis, basketball boots and Billabong sweatshirts, he had to change his wardrobe, but it was worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d really made it, but on the first day I wandered in, turned off the alarm and did it wrong and the whole school had fire alarms and bells and whistles going and I realised how little I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
It soon became obvious he needed to test himself more, so he interviewed for the job of principal of Ponghakawa School. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been here in couple of times with sports exchanges, and I brought stuff that I\u2019d done at Katikati so they knew I had some clue. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen at the end of the interview, Joyce Cobb, a lovely lady who\u2019s passed away now, came up to me and whispered in my ear and said, \u2018you\u2019ll do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo\u2019s first days as principal had its highs and lows. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids were magic, the staff were supportive… but the buildings weren\u2019t what I was used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo said in the late 1990s and early 2000s, rural school boards sometimes minimised the building work that needed to be done for fear they would be closed down. <\/p>\n
Former Pongakawa School principal Craig Haggo in front of the TECT Pongakawa Action centre. The school raised the most money of any school in New Zealand at the time to get it built.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess, all things considered, it became clear the Ministry [of Education] needed to spend some cash here, and they weren\u2019t particularly inclined to, so that took quite a bit of persuasive work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started getting roll growth, and it was quite a battle to get the Ministry to understand that we qualified for funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then-Bay of Plenty opposition MP Tony Ryall made a real difference, Haggo said.<\/p>\n
Haggo also made a cheeky, although accidental, phone call to then-Education Minister Trevor Mallard\u2019s office, which was not \u201cthe done thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Eventually, there was success with funding forthcoming for an arts centre, and later towards the Pongakawa Action Centre that was also supported by TECT, other grants and $130,000 raised by the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe raised the most amount of money of any school in New Zealand in 2012-13.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo said the school has plenty of history and is built on strong values, but it embraced change and the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never followed trends, but we do set them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes his greatest legacy is that the school has continued to grow under his leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat and the fact that kids are hugely successful here. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t let kids slip through the net; we have long-standing staff members, and the biggest vote of confidence is the kids that were here when I came have come back and brought their kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because we\u2019ve got good, strong parent support, not just in the PTA, not just in the Board of Trustees, but in the wider community, everybody is actively engaged in ensuring that the very best learning opportunities happen for their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haggo said he still \u201cloves the place\u201d and felt he was still doing a good job, but there were warning signs on an overseas trip last year when he realised how tired he was.<\/p>\n
His newfound spare time will be filled with family time, hobbies, and leisurely reading. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty lucky. I\u2019ve got a wife [Gaylene] who\u2019s hugely supportive and kids and extended family who are really supportive of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realised a bit over a year ago that, other than things that are educational, I hadn\u2019t read a book probably for over 10 years \u2013 that\u2019s a bit frightening from a guy involved in education, especially as I was promoting it as such an important thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy principal Mike Judd has stepped up as acting principal while the board works through a full recruitment process. Haggo has taken on an advisory role through the transition.<\/p>\n
People have been asking Haggo if he is at peace with his decision to retire, and he said he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the school is in a really good place, and whoever follows me will have a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe\u2019s dealt with a lot of principals who haven\u2019t when they should have, and their retirement life was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6654,6650,6651,6176,111,43,139,69,90,6648,6653,6652,6649],"class_list":{"0":"post-5046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-25year","9":"tag-craig","10":"tag-haggo","11":"tag-legacy","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-on","17":"tag-pongakawa","18":"tag-reflects","19":"tag-retires","20":"tag-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}