Former principal takes legal action to get her job back

9.00am

Former Cambridge High School principal, Alison Annan, who resigned last month, is taking legal action to get her job back.

Mrs Annan confirmed she would lodge papers in the Auckland Employment Relations Authority today after she resigned last month after a damning report from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority over National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) credits for students.

Mrs Annan confirmed to NZPA today her lawyers would lodge papers today but refused to comment further, referring all further comment to her Auckland lawyers. It is understood she is demanding her job back pending a full hearing of the case.

She said she would be happy to talk after a hearing. She said her understanding was that a date had been set.

Lawyer Kit Toogood, who acts for Mrs Annan, said there was no written resignation from her although she had decided she would resign.

"She didn't take that step and she signalled subsequently that she had changed her mind as a result of all the support she had had from the school community.

"Nevertheless, the board and the statutory managers purported to act on her resignation and her claim is that that amounted to an unjustifiable dismissal."

Mr Toogood said her employment contract required a written notice of resignation and no resignation letter from Mrs Annan existed. Her talking of an intention to resign had been taken as a resignation, he said.

Mrs Annan's intention to resign was verbal and not written and the announcement of her resignation at the school assembly was not made by her, he said.

Mr Toogood would not say if he was confident about getting Mrs Annan her job back.

"I wouldn't comment on that. I don't think that would be appropriate. You can assume that she wouldn't be taking this step unless she thought she had a reasonable prospect," Mr Toogood said.

Mrs Annan's resignation was announced at a school assembly on August 13, the day after the appointment by education minister Trevor Mallard of a limited statutory manager for the school.

Mr Mallard said last month the manager was appointed after an investigation by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority identified several issues in its June investigation of the school.

Mrs Annan has been principal at Cambridge since 1992.

After announcing her resignation Mrs Annan, 54, later siad she was unclear about her employment status and sought clarification from one of the school's two statutory managers, Dennis Finn.

She also said she had "signalled an intention to resign" but had given no date and that there was no paperwork about her job ending.

She said her resignation to the board had not gone through the proper process because the school's board was not her employer on August 13.

However, two or three days after her apparent resignation, Mr Finn said there was no confusion over her employment status.

He said the school's board was still her employer on August 13 and the statutory managers appointed to the school did not formally take control until midnight on Friday.

"The resignation was made, she announced it to the staff, and then an announcement was made to the students at a special assembly," Mr Finn said last month.

The board had accepted her resignation and Mr Finn said he had written to her solicitor confirming those details.

Mrs Annan's claim that the statutory managers were appointed on Thursday was wrong, he said.

Allegations also surfaced earlier this year of bullying of staff, exam result manipulation, and alleged conflict of interest involving Mrs Annan.

- NZPA