Principals call for more staff funding

More than a dozen Southland school principals have thrown their weight behind a demand for better wages for their support staff but are warning of the impact it could have on their schools.

Support staff in schools are currently negotiating better pay and are in mediation with the Ministry of Education for pay equity, while the teachers’ union NZEI is bargaining on their behalf for a rise in pay in their collective agreement.

On Thursday, the Government announced $1.1 billion in new operating funding over the next four years.

Of that boost, $60.5 million was tagged to increase schools’ operational funding by 1.3 per cent over four years. Another $63.3m would be spent on supporting students with additional learning needs.

More than 500 principals from throughout New Zealand have signed an open letter to the Government asking for more funding to help schools pay their support staff, should their wages go up.

Those who signed the letter include 17 Southland school principals.

The letter says teacher aides, librarians, office administrators, and other support staff do essential work to support children’s learning, and that their schools could not run without them.

If the Government was to offer a pay increase to support staff, it could force schools to either cut teacher aides’ hours or cut other learning resources so that schools can afford to pay them, it says.

West Gore School principal Linda Fraser said one of the biggest reasons she signed the letter was because of the lack of job security for her teacher aide staff, who were ‘‘absolutely essential’’.

The number of children needing that support was increasing, Fraser said.

The school was already topping up teacher aide wages by $5 to $6 an hour, putting pressure on its budget.

Wallacetown School principal Neville Hore said wages increased for the school’s two teacher aides each year but the school’s operations grant from the ministry did not.

That meant the school had to take money from elsewhere in the budget to make up the shortfall in the wages.

Purchasing blinds for classroom windows and kapa haka uniforms for pupils were two projects that had been delayed because the money was being used for wages, he said.

Hauroko Valley Primary School principal Glenn Puna said his motivation for signing the letter was about the amount of work teacher aides did.

The school has one teacher aide and is looking to recruit another towards the end of 2017.

Puna said teacher aide staff often worked longer than their contracted hours to help the pupils and show good faith.

‘‘It’s a very special person, a very caring person, who steps into that [teacher aide] role.

‘‘If we can’t give these teacher aides what they deserve, then the people that miss out are the kids.’’

Complicating matters further at Hauroko Valley Primary was its ability to recruit any new staff, let alone teacher aides.

Because of the school’s isolation and the low pay offered, Puna said there would probably be very few, if any, applicants for the role he hoped to offer at the start of term three.