Kelston Boys' High School is fighting a hostile takeover from a charity group called Bangerz Education and Wellbeing Trust that has links to struck-off doctor Rhys Cullen. Photo / NZME
The hostile takeover of an Auckland public school has collapsed amid a controversial, struck-off doctor trying to gag the Herald from revealing his ties to the charity behind it.
Former GP Rhys Cullen – who has historic convictions for receiving stolen cars and separately lost his medical licence in 2007 for prescribing more than 46,000 pseudoephedrine tablets without just cause – launched High Court action against the Herald when questioned about his role.
Cullen works closely with Siaosi Gavet and the Bangerz Education and Wellbeing Trust (Bewt), the small charity that attempted to takeover 800-student Kelston Boys’ High School.
Gavet and Bewt had hoped to convert the state school into a privately-run charter school they would control, funded by taxpayers.
The school’s board and staff members opposed it throughout, posting a letter yesterday with “wonderful news” that Bewt’s bid had been withdrawn this week.
“We sincerely hope no other school in New Zealand will have to experience what our community has endured,” the school’s presiding board member Sanalio Kaihau said.
Gavet denied Cullen’s ties with Bewt when the Herald sought comment a fortnight ago.
“Rhys Cullen has nothing to do with us. I’ll make that categorically clear in terms of what we’re doing with the conversions,” Gavet said.
“He’s not a part of this conversion, not a part of Bewt and what it is we do,” he added.
Cullen told the Herald he didn’t support Kelston Boys’ conversion into a charter school and couldn’t understand why his past was relevant.
“I can see that there might be some relevance to the application if I supported it, but I do not. I have no intention of becoming involved,” he said.
Cullen then applied for an urgent injunction to stop the Herald publishing.
When the Herald successfully opposed that, he filed an appeal – restricting our ability to publish for another fortnight.
On Thursday this week, Cullen withdrew his action without his appeal being heard, noting he wasn’t sure he had “energy to pursue this matter”.
Bewt, in the meantime, quietly dropped its takeover bid for Kelston Boys.
And around the same time, Cullen sat side-by-side with Gavet in Bewt’s West Auckland club rooms for a TVNZ video interview to discuss the takeover. That was despite his legal action continuing to gag the Herald.
Cullen was presented in the interview as Bewt’s main tutor and educator and a key part of its success.
Gavet declared in the same segment that he backed Cullen “110%”.
“My community profile I’ll lay on the line,” he said regarding his support for Cullen.
Bewt now planned to apply to start a new charter school in its club rooms where Cullen tutors students.
Critics said Bewt’s failed takeover raised questions about “random” people or groups using new charter school laws to seek to take over public schools.
Charter schools are independent or private schools funded by taxpayers.
One Auckland principal told the Herald conversion applications should be required to meet higher thresholds.
“It’s concerning … any random person with a beef can form a group and put together an application,” he said.
Gavet and Bewt had hoped to gain a charter school contract to run the school for 10-years, starting from January.
Gavet earlier told the Herald that his team met the high standards needed to run an important community asset.
Kelston Boys’ students tutored by him and Bewt backed his conversion plans, he said.
He’d held a variety of education sector roles and previously served on Kelston Boys’ board, he said.
He also founded Pro-Pare Athlete Management Trust, a charity that worked with Bewt to tutor secondary students, with a focus on high-performance rugby and rugby league.
Bewt claimed its tutoring and community hub – with gym equipment and “chill out” zones – had helped students achieve sporting success, gain real job skills and entry into engineering at university.
Despite Gavet distancing Bewt from Cullen, the former doctor signed the charity’s founding legal document in May 2023 as a witness, the Charities Register showed.
A 2021 Onehunga Community News article described Cullen and Gavet as “colleagues”.
A High Court judge in 2023 also described Cullen as providing tutoring and other services to young students “alongside” Gavet’s Pro-Pare Athlete Management Trust.
In that case, Cullen unsuccessfully appealed a trespass notice that Mt Albert Grammar issued barring him from their school grounds.
Cullen accused the school of institutional racism, and said students tutored by him had improved academically.
Mt Albert Grammar claimed Cullen “wanders around” its grounds and would sometimes take students to off-campus tutoring while the school was open without notifying teachers.
They also claimed he was unhelpful, argumentative and combative with staff, and encouraged students he tutored to defy teachers and be uncooperative.
Cullen also lost a connected 2024 High Court case in which he sought appointment as “litigation guardian” for a Mt Albert Grammar student so he could represent the boy in court against the school.
The judge rejected the application partly because of his “character”.
The judge noted how the former Papakura GP was struck off the medical register for prescribing more than 46,000 tablets containing pseudoephedrine – P’s main ingredient – in 2003 and 2004 without medical justification.
He was later convicted in 2009 on 15 counts of receiving stolen vehicles at a scrap metal yard, the judge said.
When launching the takeover bid for Kelston Boys’, Gavet claimed the school was failing academically and that intervention was needed desperately.
However, in a letter posted online on October 28, the school’s acting principal Daniel Samuela accused Gavet’s team of not only launching a hostile takeover but acting with a “lack of transparency”.
“It has further raised concerns for us about their ability to work with the community and staff,” Samuela said.
“Our senior leaders and staff do not believe that becoming a charter school is in the best interests of our students and community.”
Samuela said his team was proud of Kelston Boys’ academic, cultural and sporting progress in recent years.
That included a record NCEA level 3 pass rate of 85% in 2024 and winning the World Schools Rugby Festival in Dubai.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has pushed charter schools’ introduction, with the coalition government setting aside $153 million over two years for new or converting public schools.
Seymour said they gave students and parents more education choices while introducing standards that must be met.
“We’ve set up a system where applicants must be part of the school community, clearly explain why their proposal would work, and demonstrate genuine community support. If they can’t do that, the proposal will not proceed,” he said.
Bewt earlier said the new Charter School Agency had helped and worked closely with it on its now withdrawn application.
Those wanting to convert public schools can get $8000 in taxpayer help for applications, the agency’s website says.
Justine Mahon, chair of the Authorisation Board – the new seven-person board with final say on which schools become charter schools – said the agency funded outside groups it called “support partners” to help applicants.
Bewt received six hours help from a support partner, Mahon told the Herald in early November.
“The exact amount paid to the support partner is commercial in confidence but would generally be expected to be in the range of $1000-$2000 total per applicant.”
If there are enough charter school applicants, Mahon’s board could award $153m in taxpayer-funded contracts during its tenure.
Asked what information was publicly available about how and why the board made decisions, Mahon said successful new contracts were “notified in the Gazette” and announced by Seymour.
Unsuccessful applicants were contacted directly “and this information isn’t released publicly as it’s confidential”, she said.
Asked why the public couldn’t know who sought taxpayer funded contracts and how decisions were made, Mahon said releasing those details could “discourage” and “deter” future applicants.
In response to criticism about lack of transparency, Mahon said the laws laid out a range of requirements the board must follow.
That included seeking the views of the heads of the Ministry of Education and Education Review Office and consulting with communities to gauge the level of local support for a proposed charter school.
Labour and Kelston MP Carmel Sepuloni called the takeover bid “concerning”.
“We need full transparency of this process and an explanation of how worrying takeovers like these could be allowed,” she said.
Chris Abercrombie, the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association president, said his union opposed “forcibly” converting public schools, noting the charter law let “anyone apply”.
“For argument’s sake, I could decide I want to be the sponsor of Auckland Grammar … and that has to be given due process,” he said.
He questioned the process’ transparency and independence.
Charter schools were exempt from the Official Information Act, while five of the seven Authorisation Board members deciding cases like Keston Boys’ had served on an earlier board advising how to set up charter schools, he said.