By KEVIN TAYLOR
HAMILTON - Of 30 winners in this year's Multi Serve National Education Awards, only one was a caretaker.
The rest were teachers, teacher aides, or board of trustee members.
Murray Ivory, the 47-year-old caretaker at Frankton Primary School, could almost be a teacher.
His work at the Hamilton school involves more than looking after broken pipes and removing graffiti.
In fact, the former Army sergeant performs above and beyond the call of duty.
He coaches the school's rugby teams, referees netball, teaches flax-weaving, goes on camps, seeks sponsorship for the school, and helps produce drama productions.
Being a Maori speaker, he represents the school at some cultural events.
And he is also the school's Santa.
He has crawled under buildings to lay cable for the school's computer network and acted as a security escort for teachers to get to their cars safely after dark.
The children - and even some parents - call him Mr I.
Mr Ivory gets to work from his home town of Cambridge about 6.15 am every day, and sometimes does not leave until late at night.
Of 52 staff at the school, only four are male, and Mr Ivory makes a good male role model.
He gets a group of the roughest boys during school production time each year, and they come up with a different scene.
He has an obvious affinity with children, and learns to greet pupils who speak languages other than English in their native tongue.
Mr Ivory said that if people worked hard they got the rewards, but he did not seek any special recognition.
"I did not come here to get awards," he said.
"I just come here to do my job."
Mr Ivory has been caretaker at the school for four years.
Before that, he was caretaker at a nearby Hamilton school for three years.
His wife, Zena, is also a caretaker - at St Peter's School in Cambridge.
Going beyond duty earns service award
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