School committee elections soon

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 16

School committee elections soon

Parents who have complaints or constructive suggestions about their children’s primary education should mark April 23 (May I for intermediate schools) on their calendar.

April 23 is national election day for school committees; a day when parents, by exercising their right to vote, can ensure themselves a voice in the children’s education. The Department of Education sees the involvement of the community in education as something special to the New Zealand education system. This involvement occurs at all levels, and is shown in primary and intermediate schools by the school committees.

“Education should be a partnership between the community and the schools,” said Mr Jim Ross, the assistant secretary for schools and development with the Department of Education in Wellington. “There is increasing awareness of this by parents and also by teachers, who welcome any interest shown by the parents in thei children’s education, their children’s education, are a vital link in this partnership,” said Mr Ross. “They bring representatives of the local community into the life and work of the school in a very real way.” The local school committees are associated with each public primary

and intermediate school and are elected every two years. For the primary school elections anyone aged 18 or over who has been a resident in the school district for three months before the election is entitled to vote.

Any parent or guardian who has a child attending the school but lives outside the school area also has the right to vote.

The numbers on the primary school committees vary according to the number of pupils at the school. Schools with up to 100 pupils have five elected members: schools with up to 200 pupils have seven elected members; and those with over 200 pupils have nine members.

The intermediate school committees consist of nine members elected by the parents or guardians of the pupils attending the intermediate school or contributing schools.

School committees are responsible for the overall administration of the school. They ensure that the schools are kept in good repair and they receive grants for the cleaning and heating of the school and for the purchase of school requisites. They are the official body to make requests to the Education Board; they have a say in the appointment of teachers and investigate any complaints against any teachers employed in their area; and

are responsible for the general use of buildings and grounds outside school hours. School committees have other legal powers of importance, including the decision on whether religious instruction should be permitted at the school.

The school committees also organise voluntarywork on behalf of the schools. They are involved in fund-raising to provide all the “extras” which the school budget does not cover.

In this they receive considerable assistance from parent-teachers organisations and, in some cases, Government subsidies for halls and swimming pools.

The school committee level of work is linked to an over-all administration on a district level through the ward system. The wards represent a group of school committees in the district and they elect a representative to the local Education Board. Mr Ross said that there were therefore two levels of involvement. One was on the local level allowing the parents to have a direct .say in the administration of the local school;- the other was the influence they could have on the Education Board through their elected representative. There was therefore considerable scope in the New Zealand system for community involvement in education at ail levels.

In New Zealand in 1977 (the latest figures available) there were 2041 primary school committees and 142 intermediate school committees. With an average of se”en persons on each committee this represented about 15.000 people, all of whom brought differing opinions and ideas forward and helped ensure that educa tion was not too far removed from the community that it served, Mr Ross

Membership of the com mittees is not restricted tc parents.

“1 personally feel that many committees make the mistake of having only parents on their committees,” said Mr W. W.

Fugler, president ot the Wellington Association of School Committees and Parents’ Associations.

“Often the average householder whose chiiden have left school has a lot of useful ideas to contribute, but they do not become involved because they think that only parents can serve on a comnittee.”

"This is not the case. Any resident who is interested in being nominated to a school commitee only has to telephone their local school and obtain a nomination form. This has to be seconded by a householder living in the district and the nomination can then go forward to the general meeting.