Her task will be to resolve serious issues identified at the school, which have divided its staff, the school community and North Otago community as a whole, some of which go back to 2012.
A resource management and employment lawyer, Ms Hornsey has already served this year as commissioner at Aparima College in Riverton and Salford School in Invercargill. She was appointed commissioner at Aparima last month.
The ministry's head of sector enablement and support, Katrina Casey, said Ms Hornsey visited the school yesterday to meet senior management.
''Her brief is to resolve the serious issues facing the school.
''I have confidence Ms Hornsey has the skills and experience to make the changes that are needed at Waitaki Boys,'' Ms Casey said.
The school's pupils needed a safe and orderly environment in which to learn, and staff needed a positive environment if they were to teach effectively, she said.
''In her previous work for us, Ms Hornsey has shown she is determined and gets results,'' Ms Casey said.
Ms Hornsey had significant experience in governance and recently completed a successful term as limited statutory manager at Omarama Primary School, where she was appointed to handle employment issues.
A new principal started at the school late last year, and the school was now operating well.
At Salford, she had made good progress in resolving issues.
Ms Hornsey could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Ms Hornsey has played a strong role in South Canterbury community organisations, as an appointed board member of the South Canterbury District Health Board from 2008 to 2013, and as a trustee of the Mid and South Canterbury Community Trust from 2005 to 2013.
Issues have been identified at WBHS from as far back as 2012, these coming to a head in May when a senior staff member was stood down after a serious incident involving a pupil and the ministry received comments and complaints about what was happening at the school.
That prompted a meeting between the board, Ministry of Education and a New Zealand School Trustees consultant, which was followed by the trustees commissioning a report on the issues from Dunedin education consultant Cleave Hay.
He found the school to be ''at a point of crisis'', which the board rejected.
However, the board accepted nine recommendations in his report, including commissioning a further report from former Waitaki mayor Alan McLay and former John McGlashan principal Michael Corkery.
That report made similar findings to Mr Hay's, concluding the school was ''at considerable risk'', that there was a ''toxic environment'' for staff which was possibly affecting pupils and that the situation was unlikely to change under the existing governance and management structures.
A draft Education Review Office report, which remains confidential, also suggested things would not change under the existing structures and recommended, at the least, the appointment of a limited statutory manager.
After those three independent reports, the ministry acted last Monday to replace the board with a commissioner.
