Ms Hornsey was appointed commissioner in October by the Ministry of Education under its intervention process, after the board of trustees stepped aside when two independent reports and an Education Review Office (ERO) review criticised the way the school was being governed and managed.
Since then, she has prepared a scoping report and action plan to address issues, and yesterday issued her first intervention report on the progress made.
The issue of ''the school as a good employer'' was the most demanding aspect so far, in terms of time and resources, she said.
Ms Hornsey repeated the findings of the independent and ERO reports, that the school remained at risk on employment-related complaints and grievances.
The New Zealand School Trustees Association would be assisting the school with a ''good employer review''.
This would start in term 1 next year.
Employment had been a major issue.
A large number of teachers, including senior staff, had left, and there were issues over new appointments and changes to the timetable which placed the school at odds with the Post Primary Teachers' Association union.
The other issues identified which Ms Hornsey was working through were:
Pastoral care: The reviews of the hostel pastoral care programme and behaviour management systems and the school student welfare system, student behaviour management system and disciplinary practices were under way.
Communications and public relations: Support for the school continued to be expressed and actively demonstrated. Concerns and complaints were being addressed as they arose.
Improvements are still required in this area.
Financial management and reporting: The terms of reference for the financial forensic review were being finalised and given the number of expressions of interest received, a tender process was being considered.
Deloittes had been appointed as the auditor for 2015.
The audit conducted by Deloittes on behalf of the Office of the Auditor General was separate to the proposed forensic review.
Governance good practice: A new overarching framework of governance policies had been adopted and a compliance checklist developed to reduce the risk of exposure of not complying with legislation.
All policies have been scheduled to be reviewed over the course of next year.
Governance meeting protocols have been established and governance meetings held on November 27 and December 18..
In her role as commissioner, Ms Hornsey takes over the governance role of the board of trustees, working with rector Paul Jackson who is responsible for running the school day-to-day.
