Staff stick with Salisbury
Staff at beleaguered Salisbury School near Nelson are not giving up the fight to keep the doors open.
‘‘I wouldn’t give up,’’ said teacher Dale Roozenburg. ‘‘They’ll have to shut the gates on me first.’’
Salisbury is a residential school in Richmond that caters for girls from years 3 to 11 who have complex intellectual impairment.
Education Minister Hekia Parata announced in June that she had initiated consultation with the school’s board on its proposed closure, which was originally tipped for January 27. Consultation was set to finish on August 12 with an interim decision due soon after.
However, Parata has delayed the interim decision more than once and the school community remains on tenterhooks.
Parata this week said it was important the process was not rushed. ‘‘I want my decision to be based on a thorough examination of all the necessary information, which is why the Ministry of Education is taking the time needed to consider all the information in order to provide me with the best advice,’’ she said. ‘‘Through the consultation process, 111 groups and individuals made submissions.’’
Parata, who is not standing for re-election this year, would not be drawn on a date for the decision.
The Salisbury School roll has fallen from 77 in 2009 to 10 in 2017, a drop school advocates blame on the ministry.
Staff at the school, which celebrated its centenary in October, are no strangers to job insecurity. Some have worked there for decades and went through Parata’s bid to close Salisbury in 2012. The school board won a reprieve from that decision by taking a case to the High Court.
It is coming up 14 years since Roozenburg joined the team. She said she still had ‘‘fire in my belly’’ for teaching at Salisbury.
‘‘Every day, I come in here and I think I’m really happy to be here and working with these girls,’’ Roozenburg said.
Student health liaison worker and teacher aide Carolyn Shirtliff started at Salisbury in 1981. She took a break from 1995-99 before returning.
She had no intention throwing in the towel.
‘‘I’m as passionate now as I was all those years ago,’’ Shirtliff said.
Christine Robertson, started in 2001 and works in the residential area as a lead student support facilitator and also in the school as a teacher aide.
‘‘I can’t believe that Salisbury will close ... because I can see such a need for it,’’ Robertson said.
Relieving principal Ritchie Telfer worked at the school for 10 years from 2000 and is back while principal Brenda Ellis is on study leave.
A resource teacher of learning and behaviour, Telfer recently completed post-graduate study on of