School meeting not 'a right', says ministry

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 529, 29 March 1994, Page 5

School meeting not 'a right', says ministry

Procedures a parent or caregiver should follow if they want to change the way their school does things starts with talking to the principal, Ministry of Education spokesperson Anne Devonshire told the Bulletin last week. The Bulletin spoke to Mrs Devonshire following a series of letters from T angi wai resident June Bates, who for some time has been calling for a public meeting to

discuss the vertical grouping system. Mrs Bates has grandchildren attending the school. Mrs Devonshire said it was not a right of parents to demand public meetings be held. She said such a decision was up to the Board of Trustees.. If a person is dissatisfied with the response from the principal, they can write or make representation to the Board of Trustees.

She said if after consultation with the principal and the BoT the person is still not happy, they can engender support from the school community and stand for election to the board of trustees. "They need to provide researched, empirical evidence as to why a system should be changed," she said. The best way for them to make changes is to become involved as parents in the running of the school through the board of trustees, she said. A person who is not a parent or caregiver would have to be nominated for election by a parent. Choice "Ultimately if a parent is still not happy, they have the right to remove their child from the school and take the child to another school, although that may not be as easy in a rural area as in a city," said Mrs Devonshire. "The first responsibility of the BoT is to cater for the children and the first group of people they should work with is parents or caregi vers. Primarily the Board of T rustees serves the children and parents," she said. Policies set down by Board of Trustees were reviewed annually by the boards. "It is a democratic arrangement and changes should only be made with the support of a significant number of parents," she said.