KEY POINTS:
Dentist Jason Ng is one of about 13,000 people waiting for Thursday's noon deadline on voting in school boards of trustee elections.
Dr Ng has been on the board of Laingholm School in Waitakere City for the past six years and is its chairman, fitting duties around his dental practice and the property portfolio he manages.
He and six others are chasing the five places on the board, which he says has been a satisfying job and "really good fun, actually".
Fun enough to want to stay on - and he reckons that his information communication technology knowledge is one of the best things he can offer.
Laingholm School principal Paul Heffernan said the other candidates were a doctor, a mortgage broker, an accountant, a solo mother who was returning to university, a chief executive and a lawyer - "all essential".
Janet Kelly, manager of the 07 Trustees Election project, said a wide range of skills, including legal, financial and practical, were essential for the smooth running of a school.
Trustees need not be parents of children at a school, but are usually from the local community - the list of candidates for Panama Road School in Otahuhu, for example, shows Pipi Tangata is standing because five of her 12 grandchildren are at the school, with which she has been associated for 13 years.
Schools can have between three and seven parent representatives on their boards, although most have five. Other people can be co-opted if they have specialist skills a school needs.
The board also includes the principal, a staff representative and a student representative at schools with pupils above Year 9.
Ms Kelly said the elections were New Zealand's biggest democratic event. Parents should have received voting forms in the mail, and needed to drop them at their school by noon today.
Results are available on April 4 and the new boards take over the next day.
"These elections are so important for schools and it is vital that all those eligible to vote have a say about who is on their board. These are the people who will guide their children's eduction over the next three years."
Although the number of nominations at some schools matches the available positions, removing the need for an election, others are shaping up as grand battles.
Porirua College has the most nominations, with 21. In Auckland, 20 people are standing at Selwyn College - where the election is a crucial one after the Minister of Education's threat to put the school under government control if its board could not make it more attractive to its local community.
