Ministry feuds with lawyers in school lunch row

By JAMES GARDINER

A row over compulsory lunches at a private Anglican girls' school has spilled over into a standoff between the Education Ministry and one of New Zealand's largest law firms.

After an apparent blunder by one of his officials, Education Minister Trevor Mallard has been asked to intervene in a disagreement between a group of parents at St Matthew's Collegiate in Masterton and the school's board of trustees.

All year, the school has been insisting all pupils, whether day girls or boarders, must pay $19 a week for school lunches in the dining room.

Previously day girls could bring their own lunch but the school has decided it is part of its "special character" that all 320 girls eat the school's food together. For $3.80 a day the girls got a cooked lunch and a selection of food.

Some parents have openly rebelled after being told by the ministry that the right to free education could not be overridden by the school's desire to preserve its "special character".

In a letter to parents two weeks ago board chairman John Greenwood complained bitterly about an anonymous letter sent out by a group calling themselves "St Matthew's Concerned Parents" and a website set up by the same group not authorised by the school. Mr Greenwood, a partner in the law firm Chapman Tripp, said he spent nearly 200 hours this year addressing issues with the group.

He said legal advice from the ministry, which said the right to free education under the Education Act took precedence over the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act, was "just plain wrong".

The ministry told the Herald it did provide a preliminary legal opinion which said making it mandatory for parents to buy their children's lunch each day was not sanctioned by the Education Act.

But senior manager Kathy Smith said that was not a formal legal opinion. She indicated that the ministry did have a formal legal opinion but refused to say what it was on the grounds it was legally privileged.