Person of the Month: Principal Daryl Aim | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Daryl Aim is preparing to fight to the end for his kids.

The Kawerau Intermediate principal is today named The Daily Post Person of the Month for November after spending the past 14 months fighting to keep his school open.

His battle has involved hundreds of hours of his own time, including marches and a trip to Wellington to plead with the Government.

Last month, Minister of Education Anne Tolley announced the intermediate school would be shut down and future Year 7 and 8 students would share the current Kawerau College site with the older students. The intermediate was to be shut down at the end of 2012, with a new campus on the college site built to accommodate the younger students in 2013.

The school was given time to make submissions on Mrs Tolley's decision and Mr Aim was sending his submission, opposing the closure, today, he said. The next step could be to seek a judicial review of the process.

"If the pathway takes us to the Supreme Court or back to the steps of Parliament, so be it."

Mr Aim described his battle as a "job on top of a job" but said his determination was driven by his passion for the students and the school community.

"I'm passionate about the kids getting a fair deal, the best deal ... Parents deserve to have the right to send their kids to the school of their choosing and not have those choices taken away ... I'm fighting for what should be their right as New Zealanders."

Mr Aim said the Government had ignored the wishes of the majority in the community who wanted to keep the school open. Students would lose a number of opportunities at the high school, including being able to compete at sports events run by the New Zealand Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools.

"The moment you are not an intermediate school you can't be part of an association."

He feared the intermediate pupils would lose their identity.

Mr Aim said the community was prepared to consider a middle school for Years 7 to 9 but on a separate site.

Mr Aim said he was honoured to be named The Daily Post Person of the Month but said the work he was doing was on behalf of the parents and pupils of the school.