Salford parents to get BOT training
Parents of children at a troubled Invercargill primary school will receive training if they want to become board of trustees members.
However, it remains unclear when Salford School will return to having a board of trustees in control.
Salford School is still under the governance of commissioner Nicola Hornsey, rather than a board.
The school’s former board of trustees members resigned in October 2013 after an Education Review Office report the previous year highlighted high levels of staff turnover and dissatisfaction.
A statutory manager, Peter Macdonald, was appointed and he suspended principal Marlene Campbell in late 2013 amid concerns for staff welfare. Hornsey was later appointed to the school and she sacked Campbell in March 2014.
Ministry of Education spokeswoman Katrina Casey said this week Hornsey would continue in the role of commissioner until the school was ready to return to self-governance.
She did not say when that may be, but the annual review of the intervention is understood to be about four months away.
‘‘As part of preparing for a future board of trustees the commissioner will establish a reference group to provide parents with governance training. This is to ensure that parents are fully informed about the roles and responsibilities of trustees,’’ she said.
The last annual review of the statutory intervention at Salford School was carried out by the ministry in September when it was determined the commissioner’s intervention should continue.
The ERO report of November 2014 found the school was ‘‘not yet indepen- dently well-placed to sustain improve its performance’’.
‘‘However, the students achieve well in all areas of the national standards and demonstrate good levels of engagement in their learning.’’
Reviewers had noted that Hornsey, who is responsible for all staff at Salford School, and its relieving principal, Kevin Orlowski, had made good progress in addressing the concerns raised in the 2012 ERO report.
A relieving principal was necessary at the school until Campbell’s employment matters had been fully resolved, Casey said.
Campbell last month went to the Employment Court in a bid to get reinstated to the principal’s role at Salford School.
Judge Bruce Corkill said it would be several weeks before he made his decision.
Casey confirmed Campbell was currently working at Enrich@ILT.
Enrich@ILT is a school for gifted children in Invercargill which opened in 2009. Its website says Enrich@ILT was the brainchild of Campbell, whose vision was to develop a learning centre dedicated to gifted and talented education.
Casey said Enrich@ILT was not a registered school and was not funded by the ministry.
and