KEY POINTS:
The practice of school zoning dictates that a college serves its community. Therein lay the problem for Selwyn College, a school boasting a liberal arts-based ethos that was shunned by many parents in Auckland City's eastern suburbs. They believed insufficient emphasis was placed on academic excellence.
The college was undoubtedly changing tack to accommodate their concerns, but not fast enough for either the previous Government or the new Education Minister. Now, armed with an Education Review Office report, Anne Tolley has acted decisively by ousting the board of trustees and appointing a commissioner to run the school.
It is the right decision. As much as matters were improving under a new principal, aided by a specialist adviser appointed in 2007, the ERO detected the board's ongoing "inability to consult and communicate effectively with some groups in the local community". This shortcoming was likely to persist as long as there was a divide between those who thought Selwyn should supply a niche education for students drawn from throughout Auckland and those who wanted to make it the area's first-choice school.
The first steps by the new commissioner, Collene Roche, suggest that dispute is history. She has instigated new uniforms, among a raft of improvements to smarten the school, and says there will be a shift in academic focus. This new direction will be relayed to interested members of the local community.
"I felt it was time for us to go out into the community and let them know what the changing face of Selwyn College was all about," Mrs Roche says.
Understandably, this has been well received by those alarmed by the college's below-par student achievement and declining roll. A community that, quite reasonably, wants a stronger emphasis on academic performance has been slighted for too long. Finally, Selwyn is about to become part of it.
