Two Dunedin schools are on the Ministry of Education's radar for complaints from parents.
In the past week, the Ministry of Education has been made aware of complaints from parents and staff at High Street and Calton Hill Schools about their principals and board of trustees members.
The ministry has asked for a meeting with the Calton Hill School board, and the High Street School board has engaged an independent consultant to undertake a review of its operations.
While there were only two schools being investigated, Mr Ford said it was twice the usual number of yearly squabbles brought to the ministry's attention.
"It's very unusual for two schools to have ongoing complaints like this. Normally, there would be barely one a year.
"Otago has a pretty good history of education and two incidents like this is unusual. Schools in other regions look at Otago schools and admire their collegiality."
Mr Ford said much of the friction was caused by external pressures placed on schools.
"There's a heavy workload in schools at the moment and people are under a lot of stress."
Principals were dealing with issues such as ministry compliance; a lack of administration support in some schools which meant principals were having to take on administration jobs as well as be the leading educators in their schools; and the number of children with disruptive behaviour in classrooms increasing, he said.
"Parents complain to schools to try and get rights for their kids, and schools are sometimes inadequately resourced.
"All these things cause concern among principals and board of trustees members. It puts pressure on them."
Otago Primary Principals Association president Andy Larson agreed there were "trigger points" during the year which put pressure on schools, particularly schools educating year 1-8 pupils.
During the past couple of weeks, schools which taught year 7 and 8 pupils were competing against secondary schools which also taught pupils from year 7 up, he said.
The battle often placed "unnecessary pressure" on school boards of trustees and principals at this time of year.
However, it was not an issue which affected High Street or Calton Hill Schools, because they educated pupils only up to year 6, he said.
He believed the problems at High Street and Calton Hill Schools were "just coincidence", rather than external pressures taking a toll on leadership relationships.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said statistics showed a nationwide decline in the number of ministry interventions in school operations during the past four years.
The number of interventions grew to as high as 103 in 2006 and there had only been 85 interventions in schools so far this year.
