Wisps of Wisdom

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1It was only a little after eight in the morning on Auckland New Zealand's North Shore but the cafeteria attached to Joseph Ward Junior High School performing arts block was busy. Operated by a private company with its own access and parking area from the street, it opened at seven in the morning and until eleven was available to the public as well as the thousand pupils attending the school. Between that time and two it was reserved for the school students before being again open to everyone until five.

The school's principal, Karla Spicer sat at one of the corner tables eating her breakfast. She usually had breakfast there a couple of times a week. Although, summer was moving into the southern hemisphere autumn of early March it was still warm in the mornings so the sliding glass doors were wide open and umbrella shaded tables stretched out across the forecourt. The petite blonde woman in her thirties watched with interest at the customers, for as well as thirty or more of the junior high students dressed in their school uniform of yellow tops and navy blue shorts or skirts, there were twenty or so students dressed in the navy blue uniform of the senior high school a block away. Several families with younger children from nearby contributing schools and a splattering of adults dressed in business suits completed the clientele.

She glanced up when Megan Penrose, the cafeteria's manager came up with the coffee she had ordered. Megan placed the coffee down before her but hesitated as if she wanted to talk.

"The new morning hours appear to be a success, Megan," Karla said with a smile.

"Oh they are. Look at the senior high kids from who are here. Their own cafeteria doesn't open to the public nor does it serve breakfast. Several of them are regulars who come in almost every morning and there are those adults too." Megan nodded at a chair. "Have you a moment or is your day too busy?"

"Not at all. Take a seat. And are the student's identity smart cards working?"

Megan grinned. "A little too well, in some cases. About half use their identity cards to pay. The rest and the other customers use ordinary cards or pay in cash."

Every student at the school had an identity card the size of a credit card with their photo, name, syndicate and class on it. If approved by parents, it could also be used like a credit card to purchase items at school such as exercise books, clothes for the school uniform and sports gear or to pay for school fees and so forth. Again if parents agreed, this was extended to buying food at this cafeteria. Once a month, the pupil's or in most cases their parents' accounts; the outstanding money owed was paid by a direct debit. In this quite wealthy part of Auckland city there was little problem in p*****t.

Megan again hesitated.

"Is there something you'd like to ask me?" Karla said.

"Oh it's only a small thing," Megan replied and nodded at a group of five boys in the junior high uniform a few tables away.

"Have they become a nuisance?"

"No, nothing like that. They come in almost every day and are obviously good friends. The trouble is that Trevor, that tall skinny kid, never has breakfast. He just has a glass of water and watches the others eat. The same happens at lunch time when they come in a couple of times a week."

"You have a problem with that?"

"No, not at all. I'm more concerned about him. I don't think he has any breakfast here or at home. I've watched and quite often the other boys will offer him a bit of their toast or whatever and he'd gulp it up. I think he is hungry." She grimaced. "I know we don't have the problems like in South Auckland where kids are provided with breakfast by the school otherwise they'll get nothing." She stared at Karla. "He's not the only one. I've seen several others where a group of kids come in but one doesn't buy anything. They have a perfect right to use the school table and seats of course…Do you understand what I am getting at?"

"So you think there may be other children coming to school hungry?"

Megan nodded. "It's not really my business but I thought I'd mention it to you." She smiled. "You're so approachable, not like the previous principal here."

Karla had only arrived at the school a month earlier but had already brought in new ideas, including the idea of letting the cafeteria open for breakfast and enabling the identity cards to be used as credit cards. This was a suggestion of her husband, Ryan Purdon who owned a computer programming business and was a bit of a whizz on anything to do with them.

"Thanks, Megan. I'll have a chat to Trevor and we'll see what we can do."

When Megan gathered up the used plates and left, Karla stood and walked across to the boys. They froze when they noticed her standing there.

"How are you all?" she asked in a casual voice.

"Fine thank you Mrs Spicer," one of the boys replied. Many of the students called her Karla but the Year 7s were still used to using a teacher's surname. Personally, she didn't mind how she was addressed.

"Can I speak to you for a moment, Trevor?" she asked. With a thousand students at the school she didn't know the other boys' names.

Trevor looked nervous. "Of course, Mrs Spicer. What have I done wrong?"

"Absolutely nothing." She nodded at the table she had just left. "Can we go over there for a moment?"

The boy nodded, moved across to the other table and sat down. He looked pale and fidgeted as he sat down.

"Have you had any breakfast, Trevor?" Karla asked.

The boy looked miserable as he shook his head.

"None at home either?"

"No. There's no time. Mum does shift work and leaves at five every morning. Dad doesn't live with us any more and there's nothing in the cupboards or fridge."

"So you meet your friends and come here on most school days?"

He nodded.

"And you aren’t allowed to use you identity card to buy breakfast?"

"No, Mum wouldn't sign the form allowing it."

"What's your surname Trevor and what class are you in?"

"Williams. I'm in Seventy-eight TS." The class name, 78TS meant he was in a composite Year 7&8 class while the letters stood for Tern syndicate and the 'S' for Ms Sandbrook, his teacher's surname.

"I see," Karla said and signalled to Megan who was watching in the distance and waited for her to arrive. "Mrs Penrose, will you take an order from Trevor for breakfast and charge my Principal's Petty Cash Account, please."

"Certainly, Mrs Spicer." Megan turned to the boy. "What would you like, Trevor?"

"But I can't," the boy muttered. "Mum won't allow it."

"But I will and when you're at school I am in loco parentis. Do you know what that means Trevor?"

"Something about you being able to act as my Mum or Dad."

"That's right. I'm saying you are going to have breakfast and the school will pay." She smiled. "Pick something healthy such as scrambled eggs on toast and a hot chocolate drink." She nodded at the breakfast menu lit up above the counter. "If you don't want to tell your friends who is paying, that is fine with me. I'll also allow you to have breakfast twice more at the cafeteria so choose your days carefully. Later, I hope to have something else arranged for you."

"Mum won't like it. I'm not allowed to take charity."

"Just do it Trevor," Karla ordered.

The boy smiled and glanced up at the menu. Megan took his order and a few moments later a waitress arrived with a tray of eggs and bacon on toast, some fries and a hot chocolate drink.

"Thank you Mrs Spicer. Nobody has done this for me before," Trevor said.

He took the tray and walked back to his curious friends. Karla watched as he sat down and began to eat before smiling back at her.

"Thanks for what you did," Megan said, "That is one appreciative lad."

"Thanks for bringing it to my attention," Karla replied. "Well, another day has begun. I'd better get along to my office and see what's in store for me."

As she walked out of the cafeteria, several local as well as senior high students and a couple of adults greeted her. She briefly chatted to them before heading to the administration and classroom block across the car park.

*

With a teaching staff of seventy-two, Karla was still getting to learn everyone's names and where they fitted into the school. She knew all the senior staff including the two deputy principals, Michael White, leader of Petrel Syndicate and Sandra Bragman, Gannet Syndicate leader and the two assistant principals, Belinda Shaw, leading Tern and Felicja Kraczko, in Shearwater. There were also six heads of the subject areas. One of these was Ruby Moffet who, as well as being Head of Health and Science spent half her official hours as the school counsellor when she was released from classroom teaching. Ruby had an office along from Karla and spent most late mornings in it. Karla was impressed by the number of students and parents who were constantly moving in and out of Ruby's office that was one of three on the mezzanine floor above the reception area with the third used by Vivian Derran, the schools executive manager. The offices all had internal windows looking out over the main foyer. As well as access to the floor below there were stairs up to Floor 2 and Petrel or Tern Syndicates classrooms in the two-storey block.

Half way through the school's lunch hour, she found Ruby hard at work in her office. She knocked and the woman who would be one of the younger staff members glanced up and smiled.

"Can we talk or are you too busy?" Karla asked.

"I am never too busy to speak to you," Ruby replied and closed a folder she had been reading. "You seem to be the busy one." She grinned. "You're certainly different than Owen Fessey." This was the principal who retired at the end of the previous year.

"We all have different priorities," Karla replied as she accepted an invitation to take a seat. She had heard a lot about Owen of course. He had moved in the social groups and was popular with businessmen, attended a rotary club dinner for two hours every Thursday and was big in the local principals' association. As a principal though, he was aloof from the staff and like many school principals involved himself in administrative work and let the four deputy and assistant principals do the daily running of the school. Karla was the opposite. She was more concerned about the teachers and students and left the administrative details to Vivian. "I'm sorry I haven't had more time to chat to you but I've noticed how busy you are between morning interval and lunch hour."

"My release time," Ruby replied. "As you know, the Year 9 and 10s had five one hour periods a day. I have classes for two periods every morning but arranged to have Period 3 free every day."

"And how much of that is taken up with your counselling duties compared with your health and science head of department work?"

"Most," Ruby replied. "We could really do with a full time counsellor." She grinned. "But how can I help, Karla."

"I guess it's only of minor importance but… " She continued on to explain what had happened with Trevor Williams in the cafeteria that morning.

"I know Trevor," Ruby replied. "Sad case really. His mother was a victim of in a violent relationship and only a few months finally took the courage to report her partner to the police. A court order will not allow him to go near her or the children. I helped her as much as I could last year."

"But Trevor is only Year 7 so wasn't here."

"There's an older sister who started at Ward Senior High this year. They are the only children in the family."

Karla nodded. "I was just wondering how many children in the school would not have breakfast and if there is anything we can do for them."

"Chronic ones or those girls who just want to lose weight and boys who occasionally just rush off without bothering to eat anything?"

"Chronic ones like Trevor who never have breakfast."

Ruby grinned.

"What?" Karla asked.

"I tried to bring this problem to Owen's attention at the beginning of last year but he wasn't interested. Who cares about the deprived children when one is climbing the social ladder at the golf club?" She frowned. "Sorry, it's not my position to criticise our previous principal."

"He's gone so don't worry," Karla replied. "But what do you know about this problem?"

"Wait a moment…" Ruby tapped some commands on her computer keyboard and brought up a document. "These are last year's figures so don't include Year 7s or other new arrivals. Would you like a copy printed off."

"Please."

"I've deleted names of students who have left and last year showed the ones who should be helped with a tick. As Owen wasn't interested I let it lapse in the last couple of terms last year so it's somewhat dated."

"So roughly how many children would it involve?"

"About thirty, which is easy to ignore. In South Auckland, half the pupils at a school arrive without having a meal. Many have no lunch either or it consists of a coke and bag of potato chips."

"And here?"

"About a quarter have terrible lunches and a few none. That is something I'm trying to cover in the health lessons that I take. The cafeteria is pretty good at providing nourishing food, too but these children seldom visit it."

"So you would support a program to provide lunches for these thirty or so students?"

"Most certainly. Last year I contacted some organisations that help provide school breakfasts and the manufactures of breakfast foods but the schools in poorer areas overwhelm them. Why help thirty when down the road there are four hundred children who need assistance?"

"You have a point," Karla glanced at the sheet in her hand that had just been printed off. "Could you get this updated when you have time?"

"Sure," Ruby replied. "Thanks for your interest."

Karla grinned. "That's why I'm here," she replied. "I have no interest in golf, the local rotary club or climbing the North Shore social ladder."

"Thank God!" Ruby replied.

"Speaking of food there's one other thing."

"And that is?"

"Don't forget to have your own lunch." Karla nodded at a closed lunchbox sitting on Ruby's table.

Ruby laughed. "And you've had your own lunch, of course."

Karla grinned. "What say we both go to the staffroom and have a coffee with our sandwiches? The work you were doing when I came in will wait for you, I'm sure."

"It will," Ruby replied.

Karla waited while Ruby gathered up her lunchbox and they both headed to the staffroom together.

*

After lunch Karla asked Vivian about the situation with the cafeteria contract. The elderly woman frowned. "Why, is there a problem?"

"Not at all. As far as I can see they're doing an excellent job. I was in there for breakfast and noticed senior high students, adults and younger children as well as our own. The food they serve is of high quality and reasonably priced. The new identity cards being used for credit also seems to be working well. I'm just interested in how our Board of Trustees allocated the contract."

"When our school was opened we decided it would be easier to have a private company running the cafeteria and later added the contract to provide the staff morning and afternoon coffee or tea."

"Another good idea," Karla added. "For a small monthly fee the staff are assured of a good service. Most other schools I was at, the children set it out and washed up afterwards. Now it is all provided."

"So what are you interested in finding out, Karla?"

"Does the BOT make any profit on the contract price they charge the company?"

"Oh yes. It was tendered out when the school opened and was subject to a three-year review. Two years back the original firm pulled out and Megan and her husband's company won the new tender. I think there were half a dozen in for it."

"So she's not just the manageress?"

"No her husband and herself own a major bread bakery. Have you heard of Farm Life Bread?

"The one that advertises on television with those cartoon characters?"

"Yes, that's the one. Farm Life & Soul is one of the few independent bakeries left in the city. Overseas conglomerates have bought out most of them. As well as bread, they bake buns, doughnuts and a wide range of freshly cooked food for both the major supermarket chains throughout the greater Auckland area"

"So Farm Life & Soul has the cafeteria contract?"

"Yes. That's why they can have such good prices. Most of the food comes from their own bakery and cuts out the middleman."

"Interesting. It could fit in well with what I am thinking."

"Supplying free breakfast for children like Trevor Williams?"

"How'd you know that?" Karla retorted.

Vivian gave a whisk of a smile. "Everything you do here is scrutinised, Karla. When we heard The Iron Blonde was appointed here the staff were apprehensive, to say the least, especially since you beat Michael White and half a dozen Auckland intermediate principals to the position. Your age and s*x were a surprise, too. We expected changes and most staff and parents welcome them. As for Trevor, it was just a rumour started by someone who was in the cafeteria this morning. As far as I know, neither Megan or Trevor told anyone about who paid for his breakfast."

"Okay, but are any profits the board make on the cafeteria contract placed in a special fund such as for buying sports equipment or musical equipment?"

"No. Any profits just go in the general school operating account. If we want any expensive items, we have the PTA or special fund raising groups are formed."

"So between the Board and Farm Life & Soul, it wouldn't be too hard to pay for free breakfasts for thirty or forty deserving children?"

Vivian nodded. "If it comes from you, I'd say they would be willing to help. As a suggestion, we could also approach one of the local service clubs to contribute to the cost. I know they help out in South Auckland. Would you like me to sound them all out?"

"Yes, please," Karla replied. "Stress that it is only an initial idea and other suggestions would be welcomed."

"Will do," Vivian replied. "I'll get straight onto it."

*