Principal 'hid students, schoolwork'

An Auckland primary school principal allegedly threatened his staff and forced them to change school rolls so he could pocket tens of thousands of dollars from fee-paying international students.

The alleged scam relied on the children being hidden from the Ministry of Education, which receives a levy for each international student enrolled in New Zealand.

Court documents have, for the first time, revealed exactly how Peter Grant Fountain allegedly ensured the students were wiped from class rolls at his school, Orewa Primary, north of Auckland.

According to a summary of facts, when ministry auditors came to check the school roll, the international students – all under 10 – would be taken away from the school for the day, and their artwork and stories were removed from classrooms.

Fountain, 58, who is no longer principal at the school, has been committed to trial, following a depositions hearing in January, and is facing 14 charges relating to altering and reproducing documents with intent to deceive, and dishonestly using documents.

This type of offending is believed to be extremely rare, with only two other cases having gone to court since 1997.

The Crown alleges that during the 2005 and 2006 school year Fountain changed, or forced staff to change, school documents relating to international students. The charges against him were laid last year after a lengthy investigation sparked by a parent's concerns.

The school had told the ministry it had only two international students in 2005 and one in 2006. However, it is alleged 11 international students attended in 2005 and 16 in 2006.

The school is alleged to have earned up to $153,000 in fees from the students' parents during this time. Only some of this money was refunded when the children were moved to a different school in July 2006. Levies of about $10,000 that were supposed to go to the ministry did not.

The students were also meant to be escorted and to live in New Zealand with their parents because they were under 10. In the summary of facts it is alleged Fountain "demanded" teachers rewrite their class rolls for 2005 to remove any reference to the international students.

Fountain was challenged by teachers, including senior teacher Helen Stringer, who said that "she had never heard of this in 50 years of teaching", but she was allegedly told "you do as you are told".

When she refused to rewrite the roll, someone else did so and deleted the names of four Korean students who had been in the class. The original roll was destroyed.

The court documents showed that an Esol tutor at the school, Dianne Mayson, remembered a staff Christmas party at the end of 2005 where the staff were taken on a mystery tour and then entertained with food and wine at Fountain's house. Fountain said the night was thanks to the "fee payers". He allegedly had earlier told staff that it was "fee payers" who should be removed from all rolls.

A parent alerted the ministry in 2006 that international students were not living with their parents. When ministry staff contacted the school in July that year, they were told only one international student was in attendance. Prompted by the inquiry, Fountain arranged to have all international students transferred to a nearby college – 11 turned up.

The college immediately had to arrange for student permits for all the students as they were in New Zealand with only visitors' permits.

An investigation was launched by the ministry the following month. The investigation found Fountain was the only person at the school to handle the affairs of international students.

Fountain stepped down from his role as principal in 2007. Since August 2008 he has been employed as a teacher at the Brent International School in Manila, Philippines. His contract there is until August.

He appears in court for a pre-trial callover later this month.

- © Fairfax NZ News