King recognises work of school trustees as elections draw close
Strong leaders make strong schools. As schools in the Kaikoura electorate plan for the 2010 school trustee elections it’s important that their hard work results in enough nominations to ensure the formation of a strong school board in May 2010.
“The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘strong leaders make strong schools’ – and this encapsulates the need for people with a balance of skills and experiences to put their names forward. Anyone from the community, including parents, can be nominated for election to a school board. The board must reflect its community and the school’s parent community can and should vote to ensure they get the best board for their school,” says Mr King.
Boards make important decisions for their schools, set the strategic direction of their schools and monitor progress in student achievement.
“I am looking forward to doing all I can to help make the school trustee elections in this electorate successful,” says Mr King.
“School trustee elections are the largest democratic event in New Zealand, involving the election of a board of trustees for 2,460 state and state-integrated New Zealand schools. More than 15,000 people are needed to form boards and more than 100,000 people have taken on the trusteeship role since 1989. These are impressive statistics by New Zealand standards and I hope these impress upon everyone the importance of what is happening as the election process gets underway.”
School trustee elections are held every three years and this is the eighth election since the introduction of self-managing schools in 1989.
Background facts:
- Nominations called by 15 March
- Nominations close noon, 23 April
- Polls close noon, 7 May
- Results declared 14 May
