Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Communities value school trustees

Positions for school boards of trustees closed this week. Around the country, schools will be hoping they have sufficient numbers of interested parents coming forward to take on the role of trustee. They are critical to a school's success. In essence, they provide the link between the school community and school management.

Trustees must be aware they have the overriding objective of good governance while good management is the responsibility of the principal. Both work to ensure their students receive quality education. In their respective roles, they focus on a well-run school providing the best education most efficiently.

Trustees appoint the principal to deliver on set objectives and goals and to manage the day-to-day running of the school. For many school trustees, this may be their first experience in the area of governance.

I hope it won't be their last. Many business leaders, some politicians too, played a role as a school trustee or as a board member of their local playcentre.

The organisations might be different but governance responsibilities are similar; the requirements of trustees to exercise reasonable care, diligence and skill applies in all cases.

There will be oversight in many areas, including compliance obligations - employment legislation, occupational health and safety, financial reporting, environment and strategic planning.

There are lucky schools. These have plenty of parents ready to step into the role of trustee. These parents will often have business, management and previous governance experience.

They add value from day one. Other schools, often low decile, may struggle to fill their trustee numbers. This shouldn't be seen as a sign that the parents don't care about their children's school. It is often that they don't know what the role of a trustee actually entails or they may believe they haven't got the skill level needed to do the job.

From experience, I know good governance is mostly common sense and the rest can be learned by doing. You don't need a degree or someone to tell you "it's business experience that's wanted".

Of course, trustees with business experience are always valued. But you can never have enough plain, old-fashioned common sense at the discussion table. It has served me well over many years and has helped me make decisions based on the best interests of the organisation. As a trustee, you approve spending money wisely, as if it was your own, and you put the necessary checks and balances in place to see that this occurs.

You know how important a healthy school environment is to a child's learning so you support the school principal in working to provide this result. From time to time, school boards will face unforseen challenges but the focus must always remain on the student.

New trustees do not work alone. They work with support from other seasoned school trustees, many of whom have been doing the job for years. On-going trustee training is also provided.

I hope governance experience gained from being a school trustee will encourage many parents to see this as a possible stepping stone to other governance roles.

Later this year, there will be the opportunity to consider councillor and board positions in our local authorities and health board elections. The governance roles are similar.

Do not let others put you off by saying you have to be a certain age, have years of experience behind you, or be a household name, although admittedly this can help get you elected. If you feel you can make a contribution, and remember, we all have to start somewhere at sometime, have a go. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

There is a need for younger, energetic and innovative thinking in local authorities. Councillor and health board positions were not designed for people to sit there for life. Everyone should have the opportunity to serve their community in these positions, if they wish.

And the community needs a range of good, capable and willing people from diverse backgrounds to choose from. Any citizen who cares about their community, where it's heading in the future and how it's going to get there can stand for election to public office if they want to. The numbers in these organisations are certainly bigger but it is essentially the same governance role undertaken as a school board trustee.