Triennial elections for school boards are being moved from May 2022 to September next year and will include provision for electronic voting.

Following is a notice from the Ministry of Education regarding Board Elections in 2022. There is now plenty of time to decide if you want to be involved in the Governance of our school as a parent elected Board member.

Please read the following, and we will keep you informed of any updates and developments.

Triennial elections for school boards are being moved from May 2022 to later next year and will include provision for electronic voting.

The elections will now be held between 5 September and 23 September 2022.

The Minister of Education will post a notice of the date changes in the Gazette.

Moving the elections through to later in the year will reduce pressure in the early part of 2022 and help to increase participation in the elections. It also may make it easier to conduct elections as changes will be made to the regulations to enable an electronic option. The existing paper-based voting papers will continue to be available.

Consultation took place earlier this year on a range of proposed changes to the regulations and there was strong support to allow elections to be conducted through electronic channels. The aim of enabling an electronic election option is to increase voter participation and improved accessibility.

Moving the election date to September will also affect the term of office for some board members who may be asked to stay on for longer.

The New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) will continue to be available to support school boards and returning officers, with governance matters and in the lead up to the 2022 triennial elections.