Dalefield board of trustees dismissed

The Dalefield School board of trustees has been sacked in a shock move that has baffled outgoing chairman Ewan Hyde.

Jim Greening, Ministry of Education senior manager, yesterday confirmed the board had been dissolved "because of the risk of the educational performance of its students and the operation of the school".

It is understood the board - comprising principal Kevin Jephson, a staff representative and five parents - was dissolved on March 8 and a commissioner put in place at the decile 5 school, which has a roll of 56 pupils.

Mr Hyde said an ERO report from two years ago had "identified some issues" at the school and a ministry consultant had throughout last year led a series of training sessions with the board, and with staff.

The latest ERO report on Dalefield School was published in December and had recommended ministry intervention after identifying areas of incompetence within the board and saying the school was "not well placed to improve its performance".

Areas of non-compliance noted in the report included a failure to ensure that pupil progress under National Standards was properly reported to parents, improper protocols surrounding stand-downs and suspensions, improper police vetting of non-teaching staff, strategic planning for the success of Maori students, and inadequate review of teaching programmes and achievement reports for students.

Mr Hyde said the board agreed in part with the report and had developed a plan to resolve the points raised around strategic planning and achievement reviews and reports.

"We took that plan to a meeting with ministry officials and they never even read it and sprung on us that they were putting in a commissioner.

He said the improper police vetting noted in the report was found to be a police problem of under-resourcing at the time the ERO team was at the school and the stand-down and suspension protocols were likewise dealt with at the same time.

"They went ahead and used the ERO recommendation to over-ride their own training regime and everything turned to custard - for the board anyway."

Mr Hyde believed trustees had made progress under the ministry consultant last year and he "would be happy to receive more professional advice" and work alongside the commissioner.