By ANGELA GREGORY
A small school that lost all its children and is officially closed down still has five staff members on the payroll.
Donnellys Crossing School, 46km northwest of Dargaville, has had no pupils since the end of May, when the last family pulled out.
The Education Review Office investigated it last month and the Minister of Education, Trevor Mallard, closed it at the end of last term.
However, school staff say they have only just found out about the closure and are annoyed that their jobs seem to be in limbo.
The principal, Rex Maitland, said he was still being paid and had not been given notice.
He had learned of the June 30 closure in a letter which arrived at the school just a week ago. It was addressed to commissioner Ian Bloore, who was appointed after the board resigned in May.
Other part-time staff still employed at the school included a relieving principal, teacher aide, clerical assistant and caretaker.
Teacher aide Colleen Scott, who had worked at the school for eight years, said she learned of its closure from Mr Maitland.
She was still being paid for her 20- hours-a-week job, and had no idea when it would run out.
"I have had no formal notice. You'd think that if you were on the payroll you would get something in writing."
Mrs Scott said she had been kept busy since the pupils left with bookwork and tidying up the school affairs.
Mr Bloore said his role had ended when the school closed. "The ministry is handling everything now, and will take charge of the school's assets."
The ministry's national operations manager, Ray Webb, could not be reached yesterday.
The review office investigated the empty school on June 15, as a follow-up visit to a critical review last December.
Mr Maitland said the June review and resulting five-page report were farcical.
"They didn't even come to the school. They did it at the commissioner's office in Dargaville, and the report was not very accurate, either."
The review office's area manager, Charlene Scotti, said there had been no decision to close the school when the June review was undertaken. "We had made a commitment to report, and did so."
The written report was dated June 29, a day before the school closed.
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