Calls for school trustees to resign

Cleave Hay
Cleave Hay
Calls are being made for the resignation of the Waitaki Boys' High School board of trustees after a report released on Friday found serious issues at the school.

The report, by Dunedin education consultant Cleave Hay, concluded the school was ''certainly at a point of crisis'' and made nine recommendations to investigate issues identified and work towards solutions.

He also recommended the board ''discuss their capacity and capability in handling these matters; and consider outside professional assistance or a statutory appointee''.

Two former teachers who resigned over the issues, a former board trustee and some parents spoken to by the Otago Daily Times questioned the board's ability to satisfactorily carry out the recommendations, based on its previous performance when they had been ignored.

Some of those also called on the board to resign.

''I doubt the current board and senior management who have steered the school on to the rocks are the best people to conduct a salvage operation,'' former teacher Graham Kitchin said yesterday when contacted.

He retired early after 38 years at the school because of management and administration issues which were ignored.

He urged the board to resign.

''It's very clear Cleave Hay has recognised a crisis exists at the school and the fact the board is still denying it is the reason there is a major problem.''

He felt the board was ''just going through the motions'' with the report.

Mr Kitchin said many of the issues identified in the report were what had concerned him when he resigned, but some others, such as a growing drugs culture, he was not aware of.

Another senior teacher, Priscilla Hay, was at the school for 10 years, including four years as head of science, and first raised her concerns over management and administration at the school in mid-2012, and again when she left at the end of last year.

She thought Mr Hay's assessment of the school was ''entirely accurate''.

Many of the issues he raised were those which caused her resignation.

''There was nothing in them that surprised me. I think there is even more to it than what has come out so far,'' she said.

She would like to think the board would take the recommendations ''very seriously'', but based on previous experience doubted that would be the case.

The former board trustee, who did not want to be named, felt it was now time the board resigned, not only because of the issues at the school, but also people were unsure about its willingness to resolve them.

He was also worried about the ongoing effect on the school, and the North Otago education sector as a whole, when parents and the community did not have confidence in it.

Two parents of existing pupils at the school shared similar views - that the situation had now gone too far and continuing as it was now would continue to have a major effect on the school, its pupils and future enrolments.

Reactions to the report on Facebook site ''Oamaru Today'' from parents, prospective pupils' parents and others in the community have virtually all expressed the wish that something would now be done.

Fears centred on the future of the school, new enrolments, Ministry of Education intervention with a statutory appointee and sadness the situation had reached this point.

A Facebook site entitled ''Waitaki Boys' High Supporters'', set up in June by some pupils for positive comments for the school, had no posts on its site in relation to the report - the last post was on June 6.

-david.bruce@odt.co.nz