School Board elections, and why they matter to you...

The boards of all state and state integrated schools are required to hold elections every three years, and this will be happening again in 2025.

As people who care about the education of our students, we should look at school board elections as an opportunity to ensure our schools are strong, diverse and reflect the values of our local community.

The school board has an important function in governing the school. They set the strategic direction for our school, consult with our school community, ensure the school's funding is spent wisely and ensure that we are giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our kura. Our board is made up of five parent representatives, the Principal, a staff representative elected by the staff, and a student representative elected by the students. We also have proprietor representatives who represent the proprietor's interests and responsibilities.

If you want to find more information about what is involved with being on a school board there are a lot of resources available from Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kuro O Aotearoa (the NZ School Boards Association) from www.schoolboardelections.org.nz. Also, feel free to get in touch with the Principal at your school or with the current Presiding Member.

Lots of people from all sorts of different backgrounds sit on school boards around Aotearoa.  You don’t need to have any special skills or experience, as there is free professional development and training available to all board members.  The main thing to remember is that you are there to represent the whole school, not just one group or family.  Your job is to make decisions about what is best for the school and community as a whole and ensure the students have the best opportunities possible.

The current board have made the decision to appoint Election Pilot as the Returning Officer for our election and for the election to be provided online. They have been assisting schools with elections for over 20 years and have been the only election provider accredited by the Ministry of Education to provide online election services since online elections started in 2022. Nomination and voting forms will be sent to all eligible voters by email directly from Election Pilot. If we don’t have an email address for you, nomination and voting papers will be sent by post so no one will miss out.

School Board Elections must be held in accordance with the provisions in the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (Board Elections) Regulations 2022. Your name and contact details will be provided to Schooled Election Pilot to enable the provision of elections services for our kura as required by legislation. They will use your contact details for the provision of election services for St Thomas of Canterbury College only, and your details will be deleted 60 days after the election date as required by legislation.

If you have any questions about the election process, please contact the Returning Officer directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or election@electionpilot.nz.

We will continue to keep you updated through the various stages of the election process. Our election date is Wednesday 10 September.