Introduction

1. Governance

The Board is accountable for the operation of the school and its performance. In operating the school, the Board is obliged to take into account the interests of all stakeholders (eg. those of the parent body, pupils, Board of Proprietors and Minister of Education). Its role includes strategic leadership and vision setting (in partnership with the Proprietor), and ensuring that the school is effective and meets all legislative and regulatory responsibilities defined in relevant Education Acts, the Charter, National Education Guidelines and other legislation.

The Board meets these obligations by setting policies and other guidelines covering all obligations (National Administrative Guidelines), delegating responsibility for implementation to the Principal through their job description, and then monitoring the effectiveness of policy implementation through a system of accountability reporting.

The Board and Principal form the leadership team with the role of each documented with clear reference to the interface both parties have with the Board of Proprietors. The Principal reports to the Board as a whole. The Board has limited time and is proactive through the audit process model for assurance purposes; otherwise its meetings primarily focus on strategic planning, Special Character and school development in close liaison with the Proprietors. The Board makes a clear distinction between governance and management. In a large school, it does not involve itself at all in the administrative details of the day-to-day running of the school. In a small school, involvement in day-to-day management is at the invitation of the Principal. The Principal is employed as the CEO and the Board expect him/her to function accordingly, provide relevant assurance information and alert the Board to risk and variance (to meet statutory obligations or as requested by the Board). If a Board member is doing something in the school for which there is a staff member employed in that role, then they shouldn’t be doing it unless invited to assist by the Principal.

The Board’s primary foci are:

1. Implementation of Special Character as required by the Proprietor

2. Enhancing pupil achievement through strategic planning and school development

2. Management

The Board delegates all authority and accountability for the day-to-day operational organisation of the school to the Principal who must ensure compliance with both the Board’s policy framework (including Special Character features, Charter and any other delegations from the Board) and the law of New Zealand. (For detail see School Operational Policies, see the Appendix II.)

3. Relevant Legislation

In developing the above definitions, the Board was mindful of the following excerpts from the Education Act.

Education Act

s.76 Principals –

1. A school’s Principal is the Board’s chief executive in relation to the school’s control and management.

2. Except to the extent that any enactment or the general law of New Zealand provides otherwise, the Principal –

Shall comply with the Board’s general policy directions; and

Subject to paragraph (a) of this subsection, has complete discretion to manage as the Principal thinks fit the school’s day to day administration.

s.65 A Board may from time to time, in accordance with the State Sector Act 1988, appoint, suspend, or dismiss staff.

Education Act Part 33

Section 2:

Education with a Special Character means education within the framework of a particular or general religious or philosophical belief, and associated with observances or traditions appropriate to that belief.

Integrated school means a private school originally established to provide education with a Special Character that, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, has, by the free choice of the Proprietor of the school, been established as an integrated school, and has thereby become part of the State system of education in New Zealand;

Integration means the conditions and procedures on and by which a private school may become established as part of the State system of education and remain part of that system on a basis whereby the education with a Special Character which it provides is preserved and safeguarded; and integrated has a corresponding meaning.

Proprietor, in relation to a private school or an integrated school, means that corporation, body of trustees, or other person or body of persons, which or who have the primary responsibility for determining the Special Character of the school and for supervising the maintenance of that Special Character, and who own, hold upon trust, or lease the land and buildings that constitute the school premises

Section 3:

Preservation of Special Character of an integrated school

1. An integrated school shall on integration continue to have the right to reflect through its teaching and conduct the education with a Special Character provided by it.

2. Integration shall not jeopardise the Special Character of an integrated school.

3. The PROPRIETOR of an integrated school shall, subject to the provisions of the integration agreement:

a) Continue to have the responsibility to supervise the maintenance and preservation of the education with a Special Character provided by the school.

b) Continue to have the right to determine from time to time what is necessary to preserve and safeguard the Special Character of the education provided by the school and described in the integration agreement.

4. If in the opinion of a PROPRIETOR the Special Character of the school as defined and described in the integration agreement has been or is likely to be jeopardised, or the education with a Special Character provided by the school as defined and described in the integration agreement is no longer preserved and safeguarded, he may invoke the powers conferred upon him by this Act.

5. The legal framework for a Board of Trustees State Integrated School is in the Appendices

Section 4:

Board is governing body of school

1. A board is the governing body of its school.

2. A board is responsible for the governance of the school, including setting the policies by which the school is to be controlled and managed.

3. Under Section 76, the school’s principal is the board’s chief executive in relation to the school’s control and management.

Section 5:

Board’s objectives in governing school

1. A board’s primary objective in governing the school is to ensure that every student at the school is able to attain his or her highest possible standard in educational achievement.

2. To meet the primary objective, the board must ensure that the school

a. is a physically and emotionally safe place for all students and staff; and

b. is inclusive of and carters for students with differing needs; and

c. have particular regard to any statement of National Education and Learning Priorities

Section 13

A board has complete discretion to perform its functions and exercise its powers as it thinks fit, subject to this and any other enactment and the general law of New Zealand.

Section 16

A board must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the policies and practices for its school reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity and the unique position of Maori culture….and…must take all reasonable steps to act in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.