Martin Elliott. Photo / Christine Cornege
Martin Elliott's colourful career as a controversial high school principal included instigating Saturday classes for failing students, banning cellphones in class to stop text bullying, allowing parents to do chores around the school to pay their children's fees and starting a creche for teenage mothers.
But behind the scenes at Fraser High School in Hamilton, where Elliott was in charge of $10 million of public money, a growing "sense of entitlement" would ultimately lead to his downfall.
Elliott, 59, was yesterday sentenced to 40 hours' community work after pleading guilty to two charges of taking or obtaining a document for pecuniary advantage.
Defence lawyer Michael Reed, QC, lamented Elliott's spectacular fall from grace.
"It is a major tragedy that such a star has fallen," he told the court.
"This man has suffered above and beyond. His career is shattered. He is no longer a school principal.
"Financially he is in a very precarious position. He had to move out of the area because of the attention. His wife has been distraught and is praying for a resolution today to get their life back on track."
Mr Reed said another 62 charges Elliott was to originally face at a trial in March were a "nonsense" and thrown out because they could not be proved by the Crown.
At 33, Elliott became the youngest secondary head in the country in 1987 when he was appointed principal of Coromandel Area School, where he introduced study evenings for School Certificate students, treating them to a barbecue if they studied until 8pm.
Elliott then spent six years as principal of Whakatane High School from 1992, where he was credited with taking a hard line on drug users, threatening random searches of school buses with sniffer dogs and urine testing of students.
In 1997 he took the top post at Fraser High School, the Waikato's largest secondary school. Among his many initiatives there Elliott arranged for three students who burned down the school gym to speak in front of assemblies about what they did.
He opened a teen parent unit with a creche at the school in 2004 and famously handed out condoms with school ball tickets.
The justice of the peace was highly regarded in the community and ran for mayor of Hamilton but sank himself when he was overheard referring to the size of his opponent's penis.
However when allegations of financial mismanagement of hundreds of thousands of dollars of Education Ministry funding surfaced in May 2009, followed by a confidential forensic investigation of the school publicised in November that year, Elliott resigned.
Despite Elliott receiving a base salary of $125,000 a year and top-ups approved by the board of trustees worth thousands known as "concurrence", Judge Glen Marshall said a pre-sentence report indicated Elliott felt entitled to a certain lifestyle.
"The probation officer considered the key facts in your offending were a sense of entitlement and lifestyle imbalance."
Mr Reed requested Elliott be discharged without conviction so he could continue to work in education, which he was passionate about.
But Judge Marshall said the use of $1203 of school funds to pay for alterations on Elliott's beach house at Papamoa and subsequent efforts to hide the fraud showed a degree of premeditation.
"You had ample opportunity to come to your senses and stop that at any point and have the money repaid to the school but you continued."
Glowing affidavits from business people and former students, as well as his guilty pleas which prevented a lengthy trial, reduced Elliott's community service to 40 hours, likely to be carried out at Te Puke Intermediate School in a remedial reading class.
Secondary Principals' Association president Patrick Walsh said that despite Elliott's convictions he was regarded as a very effective educator who raised the profile of Fraser High.
Whether Elliott remains a registered teacher is now up to the New Zealand Teachers Council.
MARTIN ELLIOTT
* Became principal of Fraser High School in October 1997.
* Won plaudits for introducing tough measures such as Saturday classes for failing students, a teen parent unit and banning cellphones.
* Faced criticism for arranging for three students who admitted burning down the school's gym to speak at an assembly, and allowing condoms with ball tickets.
* Short-lived mayoral campaign ended when he was overheard referring to the size of an opponent's penis.
* Resigned as principal from Fraser High School following the publication of a damning report into financial mismanagement in November 2009.
* Yesterday sentenced to 40 hours' community work after admitting two charges of taking or obtaining a document for pecuniary advantage.