Minister of Education Hekia Parata has dissolved the board of trustees of Northland's Moerewa School after senior students came back for term two today despite a ministry edict to enrol them at other schools.
The school was told its satellite agreement under which 17 students were enrolled with Auckland School Kia Aroha College but taught in Moerewa had to end.
Principal Keri Milne-Ihimaera welcomed senior students into the school for the beginning of term two with a powhiri this morning before the minister dissolved the board.
Secretary for Education Lesley Longstone has appointed Mike Eru as a commissioner.
Ms Milne-Ihimaera said the Ministry of Education had got it wrong and students were doing well at her school.
"We've been asking the ministry for some discussion and dialogue and for the ministry to work with us since October 2011 and that hasn't happened. We haven't had the ministry actually come and have a look at what we're doing."
She was hopeful the satellite school would be able to avoid closure after changes were made to improve its performance.
"We really hope that it doesn't get to that. We have met over the holidays with our community, with parents and we're trying to work to some solutions that keep the students within our community and still adhere to the minister's instructions.
"We hope that some common sense would prevail and that the ministry could see we are making genuine attempts to source... solutions within our community."
Ms Parata said she was "extremely disappointed to hear about the powhiri" held today as the students' "education and futures are at stake".
"I really feel for the learners but the truth of the matter is Moerewa School has let these students and their whanau down.
An audit found the school had failed to spot that student work was copied word for word from Wikipedia in NCEA papers and Ms Milne-Ihimaera said while the school did not condone copying from Wikipedia, the concern related to a small amount of work.
NZQA issued a notice of intent to Kia Aroha that it would not be allowed to assess NCEA work from Moerewa School after its audit, although the college has until May 11 to respond.
