Dunedin Kindergartens (DK) has terminated its divisive memorandum of understanding with New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK) which introduced a one-year trial of network governance.
St Clair Kindergarten committee member and parent Michelle De Bono said when she read the update, she and others all thought, "Wow, you’re doing the right thing."
"Actions do speak louder than words — at the end of the day it seems good and they do seem to be trying to right a wrong."
Throughout April and June, DK, NZK, and a faction of parents and committee members were embroiled in a fight over the governance of Dunedin’s 24 kindergartens.
After months of back and forth, the DK board threatened to resign en masse and NZK threatened to close all the city’s kindergartens just days before an extraordinary meeting was held which would decide whether DK and NZK would dissociate.
The meeting resulted in a decision to remain associated with the national organisation.
Twelve out of 20 kindergartens voted to dissociate; however, 14 votes were needed for the dissociation to pass.
Nevertheless, the decision to drop the trial was made by the DK board late last month.
Parents described the decision as a "move in the right direction".
DK also announced a second extraordinary meeting for July 31, in order to fill five open spots on the local board.
There were at least five people who put their names forward for the board elections, a letter to parents said.
Ms De Bono said DK also decided to open elections to teachers, a voice previously missing from the Dunedin board.
It was a scary time for people to put their names forward but she was hopeful "good people could get in there and help usher in some peace".
"It will be good to get more room for engagement from parents and teachers, and restore balance to the boardroom."
People were still "really scared" to get notifications from DK and almost "expected another curveball" to come crashing through, but the way communications and process was tracking, things were looking brighter for the association.
Ms De Bono said the perception had been that DK was answerable to NZK, and it never felt like an equal partnership.
"It felt almost quite like NZK were our big boss and were the ones running the show, but in actual fact they are an association we pay a fee to in order to receive support services, help us run our organisation better and follow best practice ... .
"All of these things should have been better, not worse, and we should have not been put in this position if they had those amazing support services."
She said having local people step up was giving power back to Dunedin and showing they could run their own association.
