Dunedin primary school principals say they feel left behind compared to secondary school principals.
Elmgrove School principal Chris McKinlay said the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce report Our Schooling Futures: Stronger Together Whiria Ngā Kura Tūātinitini, had 50 recommendations that addressed many of the issues primary school principals had.
This taskforce was appointed by the Minister of Education in 2018.
"It has been acknowledged by the government that something needs to be done about it, [so] do something about it," he said.
Abbotsford School principal Stephanie Madden said principals needed to be valued and recognised for the job they did.
"And it is an incredibly complex one."
Dunedin North Intermediate School principal Heidi Hayward said from her perspective, if the staffing formula applied to high schools was applied to primary schools it would solve 90% of the problems.
"That would bring in more management support, which makes the job easier, and it would bring in counsellors, which makes the job possible."
The other issue was remuneration, where principals were not always the top earner in schools.
"It makes no sense that the person who is leading the school is not the person who is earning the most."
St Clair School principal Jen Rodgers said there were different ways to pay and recompense staff available to secondary schools that were not available to primary schools.
"The system is not equitable."
Pine Hill School principal Melissa Ward said as principal of a small school within the U1 and U2 grade, an issue for her was having more staff and more release time.
"Because I am a teaching principal as well."
Andersons Bay School principal and Otago Primary Principals’ Association president Pauline Simpson said for her there were two key issues — ensuring principals in U1 and U2 schools were paid a principal salary, and ensuring primary school principals were remunerated at the same rate as secondary school principals.
"If those two things could be solved that would solve a heap of problems."
Ministry of Education Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga general manager, employment relations and pay equity Mark Williamson said despite best efforts the Ministry and NZEI Te Riu Roa had not reached an agreement to avoid the one-day strike.
"The discussions were constructive, but no settlement was reached.”
He said principals were paid according to the attributes of their school, such as roll size and decile, and their experience.
The offer that NZEI members had so far rejected provided increases for every principal of between $7061 and $8446 per annum by December this year.
The offer also included up to $1250 in two lump sum payments to help address immediate cost of living pressures.
The minimum remuneration for a principal would increase from $104,651 to $111,712 by December this year, he said.
"Our offer also addresses priorities identified by principals, including a wellbeing fund of $10,000 per principal for the two-year term of the agreement ($5000 a year) and an increase in the number of paid sabbaticals."
These sabbaticals provided 10 weeks paid leave for a principal for a wide range of purposes such as research, study, reflection and school visits.
"With our offer 145 sabbaticals will be available each year for primary principals."
Increasing the amount of sick leave available to principals had also been offered, he said.
GRADES FOR PRINCIPALS
Principals’ salary grades are determined using a grading roll which relates to the number of pupils in the school.
For example a school with 1-100 pupils is listed as grade U1 or U2, and a school with between 101-150 pupils is grade U3.
This grading also comes in to play when calculating additional staffing available to the school.
WHY ARE TEACHERS STRIKING?
Last week, the teachers’ unions Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), voted to strike in order for better pay and working conditions to keep skilled and experienced teachers in the classroom.
Two pay offers have already been rejected and the NZEI negotiation team and the Ministry of Education discussions have led to a stalemate.
