Number 1 school caretaker

12/11/2009

Graham Hansen (1970) takes good care of Balaclava School in Dunedin.

In fact, such good care that this year, he has been voted Dunedin’s best school caretaker.

Graham Hansen

‘‘He is an absolute trooper. He’s worked here for 15 years and he’s here every morning at 7.30 to turn on the boiler. He closes the school up every night and cuts the grass at the weekends. He coaches the kids rugby at lunchtimes and he’s always got a kind word for the kids,’’ principal Sally Direen said.

Teacher Rosemary Coleman said her year 5 and 6 class wrote a letter to Keep Dunedin Beautiful nominating Graham in the organisation’s best caretaker award.

Graham would do anything for anyone and generally straight away, she said.

‘‘He has not been known to say no and he deserves to be acknowledged.’’

Graham said he did not like to ‘‘talk himself up’’ and had not said much about the award since receiving it several weeks ago.

He liked working at the school because of its pleasant location near trees where native birds could often be heard singing and because of the children and his colleagues.

‘‘I often hear of other caretakers who say there are factions within the staff and always problems, but there is none of that here. Sally is great; everyone gets on really well; it’s a really good place to work.’’