Te Puke High School principal Alan Liddle is not happy his school has been included among 47 schools across New Zealand where the Ministry of Education was forced to intervene.
Under the Education Act 1989, the Ministry of Education can intervene when a school's educational performance, operation and wellbeing is at risk.

File graphic with Google Earth of Te Puke High School and its principal Alan Liddle.

But Alan says that while the Ministry of Education did intervene at his school, the Ministry did so because the school's management directly asked for help.
He says the school asked for help from the Ministry because of five property issues including leaky buildings, development work, replacement building and work as a result of a fire at the school last year.
After negotiations with the Ministry, it was decided that a specialist property adviser would be employed to help the school address its property issues.
But Alan says the only way the Ministry could implement the adviser was by going through section 76 of the Education Act, which is deemed a punitive intervention.
'Unfortunately it's a very punitive measure but we have used it in a non-punitive way.
'There are a number of interventions the Ministry of Education can put in to a school through the Education Act but all of the interventions are punitive.”
When the school was negotiating with the Ministry of Education to have a specialist property adviser appointed, a representative from the Ministry's property department was sent to assess the school and Alan says he was shocked by what he saw.
'He was flabbergasted with the issues we had to deal with.”
The newly appointed property specialist directly advises the school's Board of Trustees about what needs to be done.
'Since that was put in place, we have been able to put together a 10 year property plan.
'We have a clear picture of what we are gong to do and what steps we need to take,” says Alan.