Offering up to $1000 ''finder's fee'' to attract new boarders to Waitaki Boys' High School is not viewed by board of trustees' chairman Garry McLeod as unusual.
Yesterday, the Otago Daily Times reported parents and care-givers of pupils in Don House hostel had been asked in a letter to help find boarders for next year because numbers were required to be ''steady and rising''.
A new boarding house development was being proposed, but would not be viable if numbers decreased, they were told by director of boarding Trot Looms.
For each boarder they found to enrol at the school and Don House, they would be paid $500 at the end of the first term and a further $500 if the pupil remained at the end of the year and fees had been paid in full.
Mr McLeod said a hostel budget, like that for the rest of the school, was approved by the board.
Asked if offering a finder's fee was unusual, he replied: ''The hostel management is responsible for using the allotted budget to look after the needs of the boys who currently stay at the hostel and for making any improvements as required .
''They are also responsible for considering the hostel's long-term viability. Attracting new boys to stay there is part of ensuring it is viable into the future.''
Asked what sort of response the offer, which went out at the beginning of July, had received, Mr McLeod declined to comment.
The school operated in a competitive environment, competing with other schools for boys coming into the its hostel, including St Kevin's College, Timaru Boys' and Otago Boys' High Schools, he said''Much of the information is, therefore, commercially sensitive.''
Neither St Kevin's nor Waitaki Girls' High School offer a finder's fee and the Ministry of Education was not aware what other boarding schools did in relation to boarding promotion.
It said hostels were owned and operated by boards of trustees so management decisions rested with boards.
