Cambridge High row heads for mediation

By STUART DYE

Alison Annan will face her new boss in mediation talks as lawyers for both sides try to avert a full Employment Relations Authority hearing.

Mrs Annan won the first round of her battle for reinstatement as Cambridge High School principal when the authority ruled the school should pay her until a full hearing can be held into her personal grievance.

That hearing is scheduled for October 19, but Mrs Annan and the school's Government-appointed commissioner, Dennis Finn, who is her employer under the ruling, are banking on mediation to solve the problem before then.

Whether talks will be able to solve the prickly issue is for the lawyers to thrash out.

Mrs Annan, who is not allowed back on school property under the ruling, is resolute that her long-term intention is to return as full principal of the Waikato school.

"I believe that the best interests of the school will be served by my return," she said. "I am confident that I can work with the commissioner and a new board."

But Mr Finn in his affidavit said he had no trust or confidence in Mrs Annan.

Paul Robertson, representing Mr Finn, also said there would be resignations if she returned.

A source within the school told the Herald that a ballot of teachers found 42 did not want her back. Ten favoured her return.

Mrs Annan's lawyer, Kit Toogood, QC, said he would look for mediation "as soon as possible" and did not want the matter to go to the authority. "I think mediation is a far better way to reach an outcome ... If we have to go to the authority, there will be a winner and a loser. "It's far better that we reach agreement," he told National Radio.

His colleague, Nikki Rice, said it was simply a matter of settling dates.

Mr Finn said he had never been to the authority before in a situation like this. But he had been to mediation and "would hope mediation would allow us to bring it to closure".

Meanwhile, the Education Review Office is preparing to release its full report into governance issues at the school.

A draft report was sent to Mrs Annan on August 30 with a letter giving her until Monday to respond.