My name is Rachel Weinberg and was born and bred in Rotorua. I am married to Garth and we have two daughters, Melissa and Hannah.

I started as Acting Principal at Ngakuru School in Term 4, 2020 and took over as permanent principal at the beginning of the 2021 school year. Prior to that I was Deputy Principal at Westbrook School in Rotorua. Coming out to a small rural school is a breath of fresh air and is a complete change for me. I am loving the challenges that being a principal brings and am learning lots of new things.

I am thrilled to be a part of Ngakuru School - the staff, students and community are very welcoming and I look forward to many more years here.

I am Rotorua born and bred, attending local primary, intermediate and high school in town. Most of my teaching career has also been in the Rotorua area. I have been at Ngakuru since 2014 - a refreshing change to my career. A small school meant wearing many hats. I realised that being part of the management team, I needed a better understanding of what went on behind the scenes in running a school. Lots of questions have been asked and when a vacancy occurred on the Board, I put my hand up to be elected. It has been a thoroughly enlightening experience, one I hope to continue. 

Always something new to consider - What will be best for our students and our amazing rural school?

My name is Dave Knapman. 

I was a qualified teacher before a change in occupation to dairy farming in 1976. Following the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake Fran and I moved to a sharemilking job in Ngākuru with our two children. We sold the cows in 1990.

I have had a long association with Ngākuru school both as a parent and as a teacher.  

I started teaching at the school in August 1990 as a long term reliever. The position became permanent in 1991. In 1993 I was appointed Acting Principal and was Principal from 1994 to 1997.

I started as the Board of Trustees minute secretary in February 2008. 

I have seen many changes in the school over the years as a parent, teacher and minute secretary and am impressed with the positivity of Rachel and the staff and the effort they put into assisting our students to be successful achievers.

My Wife Lindy, our children Alex and Alyssa and I moved to Ngakuru in July 2018 and we enrolled Alex in Ngakuru School at that time.  Alyssa was also enrolled when she reached school age and both our kids have flourished in their time at our school.

In July 2020 I was appointed as a member on the Ngakuru School board of trustees and have been involved ever since.

Being a Fabricator/Welder by trade and a Maintenance Planner at a large industrial site, I am very familiar with what it takes to maintain various assets such as pumps, plumbing, valves, electrical system, buildings etc. I believe my skills and experience is very useful as I bring some technical insight to our highly skilled board.

I have been involved in some working bees, Ag days, wood splitting and have repaired some garden equipment at the school.  I enjoy dirt biking with Alex, boating, fishing, mountain biking with my family, helping to take care of our animals and tinkering with things that have engines.

I have been, and am currently on the Ngakuru School board for 6 years. In this time I have been privileged to work with the BOT in hiring 2 Principals, working alongside those principals in the interview process to employee staff members,  along with working on strategic management plans and ERO assessments of our school. During this time I have also attended several workshops,  for Board members and principals to up skill on certain knowledge pertaining to management and governance matters.  My history at Ngakuru School spans way back to 1996 where I myself attended as a student. Since then my eldest son Josh graduated from year 8 last year, and Hayden is currently in year 4.  During my current time on our BOT I feel the school has moved in a positive direction, this has been done through open communication with the BOT members and the principals, working together to achieve a common goal - a place for our students to learn together, and to succeed.   I like being part of the newly elected BOT in 2022 as I feel I offer support and knowledge to any new members, while continuing to see our school move further towards reaching our long term plans and goals.