School board in race row
Racial tensions blamed for parents being ‘blocked’ from voting in BoT elections. Amanda Saxton reports.
A primary school in an affluent neighbourhood has had its board of trustee elections cancelled after accusations some Maori parents were excluded from voting.
The Ministry of Education overturned Richmond Road School’s June election result after complaints of six parents who claimed their voting rights were thwarted.
The deposed board hit back, hiring lawyers to dispute the Ministry’s decision, but the decision has been upheld.
It’s the latest controversy to hit the Grey Lynn school, where parents in the specialist Maori unit Te Whanau Whariki have repeatedly clashed with principal Jonathan Ramsay since he took over in 2014.
Relations got off to a rocky start when Ramsay was reportedly blocked from entering school grounds over the summer because he hadn’t been officially with a powhiri.
Ramsay further angered parents when he announced the Maori unit had overshot its budget by $27,000, and the head Maori teacher was ordered to make up for this by working extra hours as a substitute for other teachers.
In 2015, 40 protesters turned up at the school to complain about the way the Maori unit was being run.
A teacher in the Maori unit was ordered to be reinstated by the Employment Relations Authority. She was paid a settlement and left the school.
On another occasion Ramsay called in police because parents were shouting outside his office.
Parents also complained that funding meant for the Maori Language Programme funding was being used throughout the rest of the school. welcomed on yet
In June, the head of Te Whanau Whariki resigned when no Maori were elected to the board, and after ongoing battles with Ramsay.
Ramsay said the Maori unit appeared to have it in for him from the beginning and he has never cut funding to the unit or treated them unfairly.
‘‘I was appointed in 2013 and for whatever reason the Maori part of the community has never welcomed me. Very clearly I was not their preferred candidate’’
The six Maori parents who didn’t receive voting papers claimed communication delays and inconsistencies in the way replacement forms were offered prevented them from voting, and provided written evidence to the Ministry.
The six’s absence would ’’likely’’ have affected the election’s outcome as some trustees were elected by just three votes, the Ministry stated.
Returning officer Bernadine Vester said this board election got ‘‘abnormally high levels of interest’’ from parents before and during the vote.
‘‘If parents are content with the way a school’s being run, they don’t pay much attention to elections – some Auckland schools had less than 10 per cent turnout,’’ she said.
Seventy-three per cent of Richmond Road School’s parents voted in June’s election.
A new board election will be held at Richmond Road School on September 16.
The Ministry noted in its report to the school board that the election ‘‘may escalate tension between the whanau group and principal’’.