Parents to pick just one rep to govern school

Photo/Thinkstock.

A staff representative will take one of the six places and the remaining four will be appointed

Moerewa School parents will elect only one representative to their reinstated Board of Trustees and all but one of the rest will be appointed.

The Advocate revealed this week that the commissioner installed by minister Hekia Parata two years ago was due to leave once a new board was in place next month.

The previous board was sacked in April 2012 and commissioner Mike Eru put in charge after the school refused to close a unit for senior students. However, only one of the new board's six members will be elected by parents.

A staff representative will take one place and the remaining four will be appointed. It was not clear at edition time on Friday whether they were to be appointed by the ministry or Mr Eru.

The ministry's head of enablement and support, Katrina Casey, said an alternative constitution had been put in place at Moerewa School to ensure a successful transition to a fully elected board of trustees.

It was important the new board had the knowledge and experience needed for the transition. There was no set time for full board elections.

Locals would be appointed, she said. The ministry had advertised locally and applicants had to show a clear connection with Moerewa.

Some in the education sector are not happy about the delayed return to an elected board.

Tai Tokerau Principals Association president Pat Newman accused the ministry of refusing to hand Moerewa School back to its community, while Green Party education spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty, who visited the school last year, said it appeared the ministry did not trust Moerewa to choose the best people for the board.

"This is a very good school, they get excellent ERO reports, and they've been punished enough by having a very expensive commissioner for the past two years. It's cost a poor community a lot of money," she said. It is estimated the intervention has cost the school up to $200,000.

Ms Casey said it was "reasonably common" to have an appointed board when a school was returning to self-governance. The same had been done at two schools this year and 33 times since 2003. The ministry would have no control over the board, which would function like any other school board of trustees.

She said the ministry intervened at Moerewa after the Year 1-10 school took the "extremely unusual and concerning step" of offering a senior secondary school curriculum without approval.

"We were very concerned about the impact this would have on the educational future of the children as the school was not registered to assess NCEA qualifications. The school refused to comply with our instructions to stop offering the classes," she said.

Meanwhile, a review of how school interventions are managed is due to be completed in June. The review results from controversy over the high cost and open-ended nature of interventions such as that at Moerewa School.