Editorial: School boards fail our children

Boards of trustees were supposed to empower communities, engage them in their local schools and produce, ultimately, great kids.

We must be failing on all three counts because for as many success stories that exist about the board system, there is a growing list of failures.

In Northland, where businesses and service industries can struggle to attract skilled personnel, it is a challenge finding people in a community who have the skills to run a school.

As we have reported today, Northland College is in trouble.

This school has a proud history, in particular, in the agricultural and horticultural fields and once boasted a roll of 1000 students.

But the Education Review Office has reported on a school with a roll of 287, unsafe buildings, poor financial management and ineffective governance.

The ERO says these issues are affecting the kids' education and recommends that the Secretary of Education consider urgent intervention.

A decision on what - if any - intervention happens will be made in the next fortnight.

The ERO is identifying schools that are not functioning, but when are we going to address the root cause - a flawed education management model?

There are communities throughout New Zealand that just don't have the skillset to run a school, and we're producing under-developed students.

Is the alternative the appointment of a school manager, leaving our overworked principals to focus on education and not buildings, or project management? Because the "one rule for all" scenario is creating unnecessary failures for communities that could do without the hassle.