27 Aug 2014

Continued dispute over Northland kura

8:34 pm on 27 August 2014

A row over the running of a Northland Maori immersion school has deepened with the school's commissioner releasing a draft report on his review.

The Ministry of Education appointed Larry Forbes to investigate last year's board of trustees election process at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Whangaroa, after it was not carried out properly, and to oversee a new one.

On the first day of the school year, 42 of the 85 tamariki attending Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Whangaroa were withdrawn by their parents, partly in protest over how last year's election process was handled.

The parents complained to the Ministry of Education, which dissolved the board of trustees and appointed Mr Forbes as the commissioner.

In his draft report Mr Forbes said a hui was held on 6 August, which he was not invited to, where a decision was made to hold a new election immediately.

He did not know about about that hui until another one was held a week later when he was told the election was going ahead.

The commissioner said despite telling that meeting an election could not be authorised, his warning was ignored.

An advert was placed in the local paper inviting nominations for representatives to the board.

Mr Forbes said he had to write an open letter to the community and send it to the former chair of the board, Terry Smith, to clarify the issue as he was having to field questions about whether he had authorised it.

But Mr Smith, the former chair of the dissolved board of trustees, said Mr Forbes was not invited to most hui and the former board had waited three months for him to resolve the school's issues.

Mr Smith said the commissioner had not given any indication as to how long the process would take and no timeframe.

He said Mr Forbes' answer when they raised those concerns was not satisfactory.

Mr Smith said the commissioner informed them that he did know how long the ministry's internal processes would take after he had finished his review.

Feedback on Mr Forbes' draft report will be accepted up until 8 September.

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