Merger
We said we would keep you up to date with progress on the Merger. We are very happy to share with you what we do know about what to expect, and progress so far. There will be more updates as we progress.

School number: A new school Number has been assigned for our merged school. It will be 903. This number will be in use once the merge takes place in Term 3 next year.

Change Manager: This is the person who will oversee the change process for us. A panel has been organised to review the applications once they are received. There are 7 people on this panel, including our Board Chair, and a Deaf staff member. The panel will meet in the first week of June, so we will be able to update some time after that.

Alignment Manager: This person will report to the Change Manager. She will be looking at all of the processes that are different at each centre and working with the teams to decide on how those things will be done in the future.

We have been very fortunate to secure Ginny Neal who has been seconded from Fairlie school for 1 year to work with us on this. Ginny Neal is a very qualified and experienced teacher and Principal.

She has has previously taught at Darfield and Mt Somers / Springburn School, and was also Principal at Glenroy and Ward Schools. She was also Head of Junior School at Ashburton College and is currently Principal at Fairlie Primary School. She is also currently Lead Principal for the Mackenzie Kahui Ako Community of Learning.

Ginny spent 5 years on the road as the Region Representative for the Correpondence School Nelson/ Marlborough working with leaners aged 3-21. This has given her a good understand of the challenges of distance education.

Ginny also has skills in IT having set up a company called AgRecord and a product called Cloud Farmer designed for farming businesses. It is now one of New Zealand’s most used agribusiness programmes.

Principal Recruitment: The task of recruiting our new Executive Principal will be one of the Change Manager’s first jobs. To help with that process, all staff, parents and stakeholders were recently asked to feedback on the qualities they felt were important in our Principal. Thanks for your feedback, it will form part of the information given to potential candidates, and also be used by the team responsible for selecting the best person for the role.

HR News

Strategic HR Leader: The recruitment process for this has been completed and a person has accepted the position.

Health & Safety/HR Advisor: This position is currently being advertised, and will be based in Auckland.

Board Elections

Board Elections are currently underway. Please don’t forget to vote for your preferred staff candidate. Also, please encourage all parents to vote for the Parent representatives on the Board.