School trustees deserve greater recognition

Media release

School trustees deserve greater recognition

School trustees deserve more recognition for the valuable role they play in schools, rather than being perceived as glorified volunteers.

This is one of the messages from the New Zealand School Trustees Association conference to be held in Wellington from tomorrow (5 July), where the role of school trustees will be under the spotlight.

Association president Lorraine Kerr will be asking New Zealanders to take a little time to reflect on the valuable contribution the 13,000 school trustees make to schooling in New Zealand.

“Trustees are now an integral and invaluable part of our education system. They make the big decisions about school policy and effectively run schools – it’s a rewarding job but it’s not an easy job.”

Ms Kerr says trustees receive $55 for attending monthly meetings, however this amount of money in no way compensates them for the hours or the responsibility attached to the position.

“No one is in this for the money – people become trustees because they are dedicated to ensuring our children receive a quality education.”

Trustees have to deal with many different areas of school governance which is in many ways like running a business, she says. In this case they are dealing with a multi-billion dollar industry – the New Zealand education system.

“Trustees are faced with finance, law, sales and marketing, human resources, student discipline and of course the school curriculum and education issues in general.”

“They are not glorified volunteers, they are professionals making a real difference – some of them have been in the job for eighteen years and that’s a lot of valuable experience.”

She says while schools do appreciate the contribution of their boards of trustees, sometimes the contribution can be taken for granted.

“We are just asking that people in the school community and New Zealanders in general take a little time to think about what trustees do and take time to thank them every now and again.”

The conference – School Governance – Creating our Kids’ Future Today – is being held from July 5 to July 7 at the Michael Fowler Centre and Wellington Town Hall. More than 600 trustees are expected to attend the conference – of which a third will be new trustees.

ENDS

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