Charter school closure decision to be announced

Minister of Education Hekia Parata will address the media tomorrow. Photo / Paul Taylor

An announcement on whether one of the Government's flagship charter schools will close will be made tomorrow.

Minister of Education Hekia Parata will address media in Auckland and end months of uncertainty for the school and its students.

The kura, recently renamed Te Pumanawa o te Wairua, was one of five charter or partnership schools to open at the start of last year.

Located on a farm 65km in Whangaruru, northwest of Whangarei, the kura caters for Years 9-13 students who typically have been on the margins of the education system.

It has been plagued with problems since opening, including a fallout between senior managers and serious health and safety issues including bullying and drug use.

After initially indicating problems had been or were being resolved when the Herald revealed the issues in June last year, the Ministry of Education later admitted some problems were ongoing.

In February, the kura was issued a performance notice and given 28 days to resolve issues before a ministry-commissioned audit by Deloitte.

Results of that audit will also be released tomorrow.

The school's management could not be reached for comment, but earlier this month chief executive Wayne Johnstone, also a trustee of the Nga Parirau Matauranga Charitable Trust which operates the school, said great progress had been made.

However, both Ms Parata and Prime Minister John Key have promised to shut down any charter or partnership schools that have not performed - and promoted that as a strength of the publicly-funded, privately-run model.

One issue if the school is to close is what will happen to the farmland that was bought with taxpayer money.

The school's former curriculum director Natasha Sadler, who was a driving force behind its establishment but later made redundant, would not comment when contacted tonight.

Meanwhile, the NZEI union has welcomed a private members' bill that would require charter schools to follow the same national curricula as state schools.

The bill is sponsored by Labour's Phil Goff and was drawn from the ballot today.

"[Ms Parata's] decision tomorrow about the future of the Te Pumanawa o te Wairua charter school at Whangaruru is just one example of ministerial inaction and delay in the face of a litany of questionable decisions and activities by charter schools," NZEI campaign director Stephanie Mills said.