Our new school board of trustees had its first meeting in the last week of June.  Normally our community would get to know candidates through the election process but because we didn't have an election this year (there were five nominations for five places) we wanted to give our two new parent-elected trustees the opportunity to introduce themselves:

Susanna Barthow

I am married to Daniel and we have a daughter in Year 3 and a son in Year 1.  I work, part time, at Habitat for Humanity Auckland.  I'm privileged to have time to support the wonderful teachers and kids at Kaurilands by helping in the classroom and when I'm not doing anything else, I like to read, pray, and go swimming at the beach.  I'm excited to be on the Board and serve our school community.

Katharine Brown

I'm really excited to be able to support Kaurilands School as a new Board of Trustees representative.   I'm a clinical psychologist and have a strong interest in continuing to consider the positive mental wellbeing of our teachers, children and their families in all the decisions we make as a board. My son Thomas is in Year 4 and my daughter Anna is in Year 2 and they both love being part of our school community.

At our first meeting we also welcomed Josh Farrell, the new staff representative, and elected Nick Summerfield as chairperson.  Josh is the Year 6 team leader and teaches in Rūma Toru.  Nick is a parent-elected trustee who has been on the board since 2016.

The board's job is governance.  As a group we monitor the school's performance, set the school's vision and oversee the great work done by the school's leadership team.  We are all motivated to provide the best possible environment for all of the school's students to help them achieve their potential.