The Devonport Flagstaff Page 5
June 16, 2017
Traffic congestion too much for commuting principal
Lake Rd traffic was the final straw for departing Stanley Bay School principal Glen Vinton. After 17 years of commuting to work from Epsom, she is calling it quits. Vinton has been principal in Stanley Bay since 2003 and was the deputy principal at Belmont Intermediate School for three years before that. Her drive home has become the deal breaker. “On a good day it takes me one hour; on a bad day it takes me two,” she says. After crawling up Lake Rd and the Esmonde Rd onramp, she also goes through Spaghetti Junction. “Traffic has increased exponentially over the last five years.” Stanley Bay has faced big changes during her time at its helm. “It has changed from mostly stay-home mums to two-income families. We now have beforeand after-school programmes I wouldn’t have dreamt of at the start.” Vinton is proud of her staff’s innovative approach. “For example, at the moment we are trying to accelerate the learning of at-risk children through what we call ‘front loading’. Instead of catching them up on what they struggle with, we prepare them separately before we go over new material in the classroom.” Vinton plans to join the family business, a supplier and applicator of industrial coatings, located in Penrose, where she will work alongside husband Stuart and son Craig. While she looks forward to more family time, she will miss the community feeling of her school. “It’s like From page 1
City kids the solution to declining rolls?
Vinton says she and the principals of Devonport Primary School and Vauxhall School were not supportive of the idea of ferrying children across the harbour to school. “We told the ministry it would require a huge commitment from the parents. Plus that our ferries, especially the Stanley Bay one, are pretty unreliable.” The principals’ preferred approach for roll growth was to slide their zones northward. Vinton says the ministry was reluctant to do that for now and would reconsider once the local development expected to occur under the Unitary Plan was actually happening. As a stop-gap-measure, the ministry “told us to take out-of-zone children for now,” she says.
Goodbye to all this... departing Stanley Bay School principal Glen Vinton surrounded by a Year 6 class a country school in the city. There is so much pulling together and looking after one another. It’s quite beautiful.” Vinton leaves three weeks into Term 3, when Lucy Naylor, a former assistant principal at Belmont Intermediate School, steps into the role.
Car crash leaves home without power
Power pole crash
Around 2000 homes south of Waitemata Golf Course lost power on Tuesday after a car crashed into a power pole on Lake Rd across from Devonport Fire Station at around 7.15am. Fullers ferries experienced minor delays due to the cut, which put out the Auckland Transport hop card machine on Devonport Wharf. Some queuing ensued after Fullers asked ferry users to buy a one way ticket and claim back the money later. Power was restored just before 9 am. • Police said the driver of the vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries.