Tu Romia loves music and often sings with the children at Richmond Rd School. Photo / Richard Robinson
Richmond Rd School stalwart Tu Romia truly is a legend in his own lunchtime.
He has worked at the Ponsonby school for 30-odd years as caretaker.
But former principal Hayley Read says his job is more like "caretaker / cultural adviser / sports coach / mentor / grandfather
/ friend / cat lover / builder / painter / hangi layer ... and much, much more".
"I've always loved working with kids," says Mr Romia, a 58-year-old grandfather of six who moved to Auckland from the Cook Islands when he was a teenager.
"But to tell you the truth I actually wanted to be a policeman."
Being 7cm too short to meet the height requirement put an end to that idea, but the force's loss was Richmond Rd's gain.
He began working at the school when his daughter was a student there and a friend left the job to go back to the Cook Islands.
Mr Romia is an invaluable part of the school community, says office manager Cathy Iele, who has worked with him for 25 years.
He gives up every lunchtime to coach the school's sports teams. Touch rugby, rugby, league, cricket - you name it, Mr Romia coaches it.
One of his greatest loves is music, and he and his guitar play a big part in school assemblies and cultural groups.
"When the Cook Islands unit closed a few years ago, the Cook Islands kids went into the Maori unit," says Mrs Iele. "So Tu would go and sing songs with the kids to make sure they kept the language alive."
Cook Islands Maori is his first language, but Mr Romia decided he wanted to learn te reo Maori as well, and has been studying at night classes for the past two years. Richmond Rd School has bilingual units in te reo Maori, Samoan and French, and this is an aspect of the school Mr Romia is passionate about.
"I love hearing all the kids speaking their languages."
His tireless work doesn't stop at the end of the school week - he spends every weekend working with young people on periodic detention, taking them to Richmond Rd to help out around the grounds.
