A commissioner has been appointed to oversee an Auckland school after the entire board of trustees resigned. Photo / 123RF
A commissioner has been appointed to oversee an Auckland school after the entire board of trustees resigned. Photo / 123RF
A commissioner has been appointed in place of the board of trustees at an Auckland school that hired a rapist.
The Ministry of Education appointed the commissioner on Tuesday after the entire board resigned on Monday.
It was revealed in September that a relative of the principal who had admitted to raping one young woman and sexually violating another while he was aged between 14 and 17 had been hired as a teacher aide.
The man, who cannot be named, resigned when his background was made public.
The school has previously said there was no conflict of interest because the principal was not involved in the employment process.
Ministry of Education documents released under the Official Information Act show she was aware of the accusations against her relative when he applied for the job.
The principal resigned in February after an independent investigator found“certain procedural and legislative requirements were not fully met” when the teacher aide was hired.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education wrote to the school community to let them know the board had resigned and the statutory manager appointed in March would become commissioner.
“As the commissioner, he will have the responsibilities and authorities of the board. The day-to-day running of the school will continue to be led by the acting principal and the senior team,” the letter to parents said.
“The last eight months have been a challenging time for the Board, and we want to thank them for their hard work and commitment to ensure our students have excellent educational opportunities,” the letter said.
Ministry of Education acting north leader Leisa Maddix said the aim of any intervention was always to return the school to full self-management as soon as it had met the recommendations.
Speaking to the Herald, the commissioner said teaching and learning would continue as usual under the leadership of the acting principal.
The process to recruit a new permanent principal was under way and would continue under his watch.
He said the aim was to have another elected board but he said he did not yet have a timeline on when that would be able to happen.
“There are some recommendations from ERO and some matters that need to be addressed and improved that I will be ensuring to have in place so that the new board comes in where a line has been drawn.
He said the overwhelming sentiment of the board in their resignation letters was that they wanted the opportunity for “a refresh, a drawing of the line so the school could move forward from the challenges it’s had”, he said.
Independent victims advocate Ruth Money says the teacher aide's victims are glad the school now has strong management. Photo / Dean Purcell
The Education Review Office (ERO) found the board had not sufficiently monitored the implementation of its policies and procedures to safeguard the physical and emotional safety of all its students and had not verified that the agreed actions and guidance had been followed in practice. It recommended the Ministry of Education consider an intervention.
“The board has not taken all reasonable steps to fully ensure the safety of every child within the school,” the report said.
“ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education continues to support the school to ensure that the school is meeting their legislative requirements including processes for appointing staff and school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014.”
It said the board needed to ensure non-teaching staff underwent police vetting and background checks and that periodic re-checking was carried out.
The now ex-presiding member of the board said the board members all agreed resigning would allow for a “total reset” and was the best way for the school to move on.
She said they had received a petition calling for her resignation signed by 42 of the school’s 1200 parents but that was not the motivation for the decision.
The board had dwelled on their handling of the issue and agreed their biggest regret was not asking for the Ministry to step in earlier, she said.
“We do want the school to move forward and the focus to be on the kids.”
A parent said the board resigning was the right thing to do although it should have happened last year.
She was disappointed that Official Information Act documents showed the Ministry of Education was aware in November that a limited statutory manager was needed at the school but one was not appointed until March after parents wrote to the Ministry requesting it.
“It’s been a real shock. Lots of agencies have let the children down,” she said. “it’s been eight months of hard work when it should’ve been a no-brainer.”
Victim advocate Ruth Money has been supporting the teacher aide’s victims and said every new development re-victimised the women.
She said the victims were pleased that the school and the school community now had strong leadership in the appointment of the commissioner.
“The culpability lies with the sexual offender and the principal but the board did enable the re-victimisation because they weren’t professional enough in terms of the child protection policies and the skills and the expertise that they should have.”
