A report published in the Otago Daily Times yesterday incorrectly identified eight southern schools as being in serious financial difficulty in 2018.
To clarify: Blue Mountain College, Clinton School, King’s High School, Lawrence Area School, Maniototo Area School, Tokmairiro High School, Hillside Primary School and Myross Bush School were not in serious financial difficulty in 2018.
The confusion arose from the way part of a report on the matter from the Office of the Auditor-general was presented.
The report referred to an appendix that ‘‘lists the schools where we referred to serious financial difficulties in the school’s audit report’’, but not all of the schools on the list had financial issues.
Schools in serious financial difficulty required letters of support from the Ministry of Education to continue operating.
The southern schools that received letters of support in 2018 were Bathgate Park School, Green Island School, Halfway Bush School, Pine Hill School, St Brigid’s School and Waitaki Boys’ High School.
A spokesman for the Office of the Auditor-general said he believed the report was clear.
The appendix listed schools that had had a modified audit report.
That might happen where there was serious financial difficulty, legislative breaches, borrowing limit breaches or in a number of other cases, such as around a fundraising issue at King’s High School.
King’s board of trustees chairman Richard Wingham said the school was included in the auditor-general’s report due to a minor technical breach relating to payments made by the school to support the fundraising activities of the King’s High School Charitable Trust.
‘‘Any statement asserting that King’s High School is in serious financial difficulty is incorrect. We note the sole purpose of the King’s High School Charitable Trust is to support the activities of the school.’’
Maniototo Area School principal Joe Ferdinands said his school’s accountants had reported it continued to be in a good financial position, and appeared to be well placed to achieve a better-than-budget result for the year [2018].
‘‘The report clearly states ‘we drew attention to disclosures (that means, we were the ones to mention this) outlining the uncertainties in valuing the provision for cyclical maintenance, because it is not clear what property maintenance the school is required to carry out...’’
