Tena koutou katoa, Bonjour, Talofa Lava, Greetings.

The Board has met several times since the last board newsletter, and we wanted to bring parents/whanau up to date with recent developments.

Charter and Strategic Plan

Much of last year was spent on the development of the new Charter and Strategic Plan.  The Board greatly appreciates the fantastic level of community involvement in the consultation process.  We feel enormously proud of the new Charter, which we are confident reflects all the values and aspirations of the four ropu within the school.  The Charter was formally adopted at last month’s BOT meeting.

Teacher Aides / Learning Assistants

At the start of the year we were unable to commit to the full-year employment of learning assistants, because of the low level of donations to the School and the uncertainty of fundraising activities.  We are pleased to say that the level of parent donations has risen this year and we have confirmed the salaries of learning assistants for the rest of the year.

Donations

While we were happily able to confirm the continued employment of learning assistants for this whole year, the future is uncertain.  The level of donations at Richmond Road School is still very low, and unfortunately much of the energy of the principal and board must still be on fundraising, rather than the optimum management and governance of the school.  Though donations are voluntary, we encourage parents, with the utmost vigour, to commit to donations for the rest of the year, and throughout 2010, to guarantee the quality of their children’s education at this wonderful school.

Board Composition

We realized last month that Shelley Ruha had technically ceased to be a trustee, by virtue of having missed three consecutive Board meetings.  Shelley and Stephanie comprise the Finance Committee, and although Shelley did indeed miss three meetings, she continued and continues to be a most active and valuable trustee.  As Chair, Ewen took advice from the New Zealand School Trustees Association [NZSTA] and they suggested that the best way forward was to co-opt Shelley as a trustee for the remainder of our three-year term, and formally reduce the number of parent trustees on the Board from five to four until the end of our term, in order to preclude the need to elect or select an additional trustee so close to the end of our term.  A reduction in the number of trustees needs to be by an alteration to the Board’s constitution, and while we aimed to achieve this at our last BOT meeting on 21^st September, we omitted to give you proper notice. 

Therefore we are now informing parents/whanau that at our next meeting on 19^th October, at 7pm, we intend to alter the constitution of the Board to reduce the number of parent trustees from five to four, for the remainder of the triennial term of trustees.

BOT Triennial Elections 2010

The proposed day for the next BOT elections is Friday 7^th May, 2010.  Being a trustee is a way you can make a substantial contribution to positive outcomes for our students.  It is a very rewarding position, so please consider putting yourself forward as a candidate.  If you are interested, you could get a feel for the role by attending BOT meetings.  Don’t be shy!

Education Review Office (ERO) Visit

During the week beginning 16^th November, ERO is conducting their regular review of Richmond Road School.  The last review was in March 2007 and it was a very positive one.  The report is available on the ERO website: http://www.ero.govt.nz.  The review team is led by Robert Blucher.  There will be an opportunity for parents/whanau to meet with the review team sometime during this week.  We are looking forward to the reviewers’ feedback, as it is useful to get an external perspective about how well we are doing and how we can continue to improve the education we provide for our students.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for Monday 19^th October 2009 at 7pm in the staffroom.  Note the meeting starts an hour later than usual as the board is meeting the ERO reviewers for an hour prior to the meeting.  As usual, speaking rights at the meeting are available to parents/whanau by prior request.  The meeting with ERO reviewers from 6pm to 7pm is not open to the public.

This newsletter was brought to you on behalf of your Community and Management team at Richmond Road School: Ewen Mackenzie-Bowie (Chair), Stephanie Anich (Principal), Nerra Lealiifano (Staff Trustee), Tina Barclay (Secretary), Jo Okesene, Dan Salmon, Shelley Ruha and Annie Hogan.