Ngunguru School Board of Trustees under fire after staff resignations

Ngunguru School is situated on the Tūtūkākā Coast in Whangārei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A Whangārei school has had 10 resignations in less than a year, including its longest-serving principal and long-term staff members.

Allegations have been made that the Ngunguru School Board of Trustees played a role in the staff turnover.

But two school board members, including the presiding member, rejected the claim. They said the number of resignations is the natural progression of a school after having a long-term principal leave.

They noted that six others were teachers and the remaining three were a cleaner, a caretaker and a secretary.

A parent who wished to remain anonymous contacted the Advocate earlier this year over concerns at long-standing school staff “leaving in droves”.

Several former staff who recently resigned declined to speak to the Advocate and others did not reply. The school’s previous principal of 20 years, Rick Sayer, was unable to comment.

Both a board of trustees presiding member and parent representative put the staff turnover down to a dislike of change and other various reasons.

They said change could make people “uncomfortable” and when staff saw it was going to happen they decided to resign.

The presiding member was not concerned about long-term staff leaving because they “grew alongside” Sayer and younger teachers “traditionally move around a lot”.

“Change is a part of growth.”

The parent representative said the vacancies provided opportunities to bring in new teachers who are “fabulous and energetic”.

“We feel like we’ve turned a page; this is a fresh start.”

The presiding member said: “You get in a rut, you have the same people and the same ideas year in and year out, it’s great to infuse it with new life.”

However, a former board member believes the board engaged in bullying behaviour, ultimately pushing out long-term staff.

But the current member and parent representative confirmed the board had not received any formal complaints of this nature.

The former board member believed staff wouldn’t have left if they were happy and there had been little staff turnover in the 10 years prior.

However, the presiding member and parent representative do not agree staff left because of a change in the school’s culture.

The member said culture is set by management and not the board of trustees.

The former board member believed the trustees held too much control within the school but the presiding member said that version of what happened was “really different” to the current board.

Concerns about the school’s board of trustees began before the current members were elected.

Four trustees abruptly left in 2021 under the leadership of then-chairman Terry Sage. The school group “Concerned Parents of Ngunguru School ” started an online petition calling for Sage’s resignation but it was unsuccessful.

Sage and long-term school treasurer John Woolley stepped down after Chanelle Armstrong, Amber Fayerberg, Melissa Gilbert, and Joel Higgie were elected to the board.

Minutes from a December 2021 board meeting recorded Woolley as stating that he would “no longer work with trustees that behave this way”.

The presiding member and parent representative, when asked about Woolley’s statement, said they had no opinion on it.

A parent, who did not want to be identified, said the current board had promised to offer more transparency to the school community.

They said for a short while communication improved but the board now seemed “less transparent”.

Both the parent and former board member believe a commissioner needs to be placed within the school.

“It can never go back to what it was, and that in itself is not a bad thing, there’s always evolution but I think it needs to be different to where it is now,” the former board member said.

This article has been amended to correct the following things. The initial reference to the title of acting chairperson should have said presiding member. It was not ‘Friends of Ngunguru School’ who started the petition but a group of Concerned Parents of Ngunguru School and Joel Higgie was also elected to the board in 2021 alongside Chanelle Armstrong, Amber Fayerberg and Melissa Gilbert.

Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie recently graduated Massey University and has a special interest in the environment and investigative reporting.