Cambridge High former principal paid up to $50,000

Cambridge High School's controversial former principal Alison Annan received a payment of up to $50,000 after reaching a confidential mediation agreement with the school.

The school's annual report for the year ending December 31, 2004, states a termination payment of between $40,000 and $50,000 was paid in the principal's remuneration. It also records a cost of $77,500 for "compensation and other benefits paid to former trustees and employees upon leaving".

Mrs Annan stepped down in December following Employment Relations Authority mediation. She had resigned as principal in August amid allegations of staff bullying and manipulation of exam results.

The school's commissioner, Dennis Finn, who was appointed by Education Minister Trevor Mallard after he sacked the board, said today in addition to the confidential settlement, Mrs Annan had made a claim for assistance with her "substantial" legal fees.

"We paid a small proportion," he told NZPA. "That is the difference between the $40,000 to $50,000 and $77,500."

When the authority made its decision last year, Mrs Annan was still an employee of the school, Mr Finn said.

"Under the State Sector Act, I'm required to act as a good employer and there are aspects of that act which applied in this situation."

The settlement was in the best interests of everyone involved in the school, as well as taxpayers, he said.

"The cost to go through the court process would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars, not the mere pittance we're talking about.

"Had we gone through the court process, it was clearly indicated through agreement with both legal parties that that course of action would take 15 to 18 months.

"We would not be able to move the school forward in that time had that happened."

The school had moved on significantly in the past 12 months, Mr Finn said.

A new principal had been appointed and a new board could be in place by the end of the year. Phil McCreery joined the school last month after eight years as principal at Pahiatua's Tararua College.

The commissioner denied the payment was a "golden handshake".

"It's definitely not a golden handshake. A golden handshake would have been if I offered her a payment without any legal process surrounding it.

'This was a legitimate legal process, it went through its course and the school moved on.

"It's no golden handshake."

- NZPA