The Whangaruru Charter School are seeking a new principal. This follows the principal and school manager being made redundant last night in line with criteria set last month by the Minister of Education Hekia Parata.
It's business as usual at Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru following an announcement from the school board.
Wayne Johnstone, a trustee of Te Pumanawa o te Wairua says, “As of yesterday we've met with our curriculum director Natasha Sadlier and also our school manager Makere Lawrence Bade and issued each of them with a redundancy notice.”
This Friday is the deadline set by Education Minister Hekia Parata for the school board to address a number of management issues. Following this the Ministry are expected to conduct an audit.
“We're not sure of the parameters of that audit yet but we're confident that we're able to meet and appease the minister’s expectations with the changes that we've made,” says Johnstone.
It's just over a year since this charter school was opened as an avenue to address the high failure rate of Māori students attending mainstream schools in the district.
Johnstone says, “I think it’s more about the trustees having to take some action so that we could move forward collectively and do our best to have kept the school open and hopefully it’s going to work in our favour.”
Despite the recent pressures the focus still remains on the achievement levels of the current students.