The Ministry of Education appointed limited statutory manager Cleave Hay to Lawrence Area School on September 4 after an independent review identified risks to governance and management relationships.
Mr Hay said he was working with the school’s board and principal John Auld to define what their roles were, the boundaries of those roles and making sure everybody was doing their job properly.
He said the Education and Training Act was pretty clear. It said the board was the governing body that set policies by which the school was controlled and managed, while a principal’s role was to manage the day-to-day administration within the policies.
"Sometimes when there is change, or even working that out, can create tension and tension is not a bad thing at a board table, but that tension can get to a point where it needs external help."
Mr Hay said the tension had reached "frustration" level at the school.
"It’s more I guess just that definition of what as a board member you may be expecting the principal should report on versus what the principal considers they might report on as an example.
"So, it becomes a frustration if you don’t think you’re getting what the board needs, or it becomes a frustration if you’re the principal and you think you’re giving the board what it needs and it’s not landing well."
He said he had spent the past month assessing the situation and talking to everybody and was writing an outcome plan that would define what was going to happen and when.
Mr Hay said the board and the principal were good people and had been very open with him.
He stressed that the pupils’ welfare and learning were still the primary focus of the school and were not impacted by his investigation.
Lawrence Area School catered for pupils from year 1 to 13 in Lawrence and the surrounding rural area.
