No 'golden handshake' for Teachers Council boss

The Teachers Council has given assurances its latest departing executive was not paid a "golden handshake" and that its troubles are now behind it.

The council is advertising for a new director following the departure of Euan Dempsey.

Act education spokeswoman Deborah Coddington said yesterday that Mr Dempsey's departure suggested all was not well within the Teachers Council.

"What worries me greatly is the clandestine manner in which his departure appears to have been handled," she said. "The council has lurched from one crisis to another. Plagued by a myriad of problems ... it's little wonder that many teachers no longer have faith in it."

Ms Coddington expressed shock that the council was advertising for its fourth director in just over a year.

However, council chairwoman Joanna Beresford said Mr Dempsey left two weeks ago for health reasons.

"He resigned because he considered that because of ill health he couldn't continue to do justice to the position," she said. "From both his point of view and the Teachers Council's it's very disappointing and regrettable."

Although Mr Dempsey had been the third director since the council replaced the Teachers' Registration Board in 2002, its second boss Ian Miller had been an interim appointment following the departure of Margaret Kouvelis.

Ms Kouvelis resigned last November with a golden handshake.

Any payment made to Mr Dempsey was consistent with his individual employment contract, which was modelled on State Services Commission guidelines, Ms Beresford said.

"There was no golden handshake."

The council's "teething problems" with its registration process were "substantively and comprehensively" resolved by October 2003. It received an unqualified audit from the Audit Office in its annual report to June 30, she said.

"Our financial operations are very clean and neat and we've got highly effective governance processes in place. We have now met all of the requirements for the establishment of new bodies required under the Education Act."

Its final requirement - the production of a code of ethics - would be signed off this month.

- NZPA