Board of Trustees

Kia ora tatou, It is my privilege to be the Principal of our amazing innovative learning school. I have 3 children, a son who is a student at HPS and two older daughters, one at college and the oldest is now out in the workforce! I am passionate educator, with a focus on ensuring all of our students experience an engaging, rich curriculum and learning environment so they remain curious and creative.

Kia ora, my name is Debra Michaelides and this is my first year teaching at HPS. I am the staff elected representative on the BoT. I currently teach in Harakeke Studio with our Year 1 learners. I have been teaching for over 20 years now and I am passionate about giving every child the best start to school. Outside of school my two teenagers - Isabella and James, keep me on my toes. 

Hi, I'm Jon Ives, a second term parent representative for HPS on the Board. I have had an association with the school since 2017 with two children currently attending. I trained as a primary teacher and taught at both New Zealand and International Schools in the early 2000s. I have since changed my professional journey to Human Resources and Business Management, specifically within the recruitment sector. I am currently a business owner and the CEO for a national chain of agencies, but locally based in the Karaka area. I am also the current Chair of the New Zealand Industry Council for the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association of New Zealand and Australia.

I am a proud parent of two HPS students.  With my son just finishing his final year at HPS last year and my daughter having started school last year, I have a vested interest in the direction of Hingaia Peninsula School.  I have been involved in the wellbeing of the school and its community for six years and I am part of the FoHPS committee.  I see the school moving down an exciting road and am keen to be part of the driving force behind that. This is why I have decided to embrace the opportunity to join the school board and nominate myself. My main goals for the school are:

• To see kids given every opportunity to succeed in their own way; 

• For HPS to be an employer of choice with a happy, engaged and complete staff team; and 

• For the school to strengthen ties with the wider school community.

I’ve been associated with the school as a parent since 2015, with three children who are currently attending or have recently attended the school.  As an elected parent representative my motivation is to see the school realise its full potential in improving children’s learning to produce successful students as they move onto further education, and to bring the community together as a centre of social engagement, understanding of each other and share our diverse knowledge and experience to improve our learning environment. I have been in Karaka for 10 years and have seen both the location and school grow immensely over these years to become a diverse, friendly and successful part of Auckland. My professional background is in Information Technology with the past 20 years in Programme/ Project Management, bringing my management, organisation skills and financial management capabilities to our board of trustees.

Kia ora whanau, I am Sangeeta, Indian born, and my grandchild is in Year 1. After having finished my studies I pursued my passion as my career and served in the field of education for around 20 years rising from the post of preschool teacher to a Principal of an English medium school. Moving to New Zealand in 2015, | started to relieve in Early Childhood Centres, held the post of Education officer in a playcentre, helping with reading mileage programme and supporting as parent help whenever required at school. 

I am a firm believer in the age old saying 'It takes a community to raise a child' and my desire to be on the Board of Trustees stems from this. Our kids are the focus and to ensure that every student is supported to do their very best, I would love to be more closely involved with the big picture of strategic planning and feel I could offer a unique perspective both as guardian and an educator.

Kia ora, my name is Mel, my son Ethan is in year 3 at Hingaia Peninsula School. Ethan loves it at HPS and my 3 year old daughter also can’t wait to attend with her brother, so it’s really important for me that as a school, HPS becomes one of the best. 

I am an experienced Product and Digital Technologist, currently working as a Product Manager at TVNZ. I’m privileged to be able to provide my input and experience to help grow our school and enrich our community. 

I’m passionate about sport (mainly Liverpool FC!), technology and learning. You may have seen me around the school coaching soccer and helping with the new chess club.