Totara School is being governed by a commissioner after the resignation of its board of trustees and its principal of just a year, David Pirie, because of friction between the two over the school's future direction.
Paul Ferris, of Glenorchy, confirmed to the Otago Daily Times yesterday he had been appointed full commissioner to govern the school.
Advertisements placed for a new principal and had already attracted 27 requests for application packs.
In the interim, former Maheno School principal Murray Nelson has been appointed acting principal for the first term. Three staff, including Mr Nelson, had been confirmed for this year and the roll was higher than expected for the first term after falling from 59 to about 40. The school was expected to start the first term with a roll ''in the mid-40s''. Mr Ferris, said there had been a problem with community confidence in the school and its direction.
It was felt Mr Pirie, who came to Totara from the principal's job at Waihao Downs School, south of Waimate, at the start of the 2012 year, was ''unable to manage the school to the expectation of parents'', leading to a fall in the roll.
The board realised it needed help and sought advice from the School Trustees Association and Ministry of Education, which led to its resigning in September and Mr Ferris being appointed commissioner in October. He expected a new principal to be finalised next month, to start in the second term.
Mr Ferris hoped the school could move back to self-governance by the end of this year with the election of a new board, although some parents were already involved in some of the processes, including being asked for views about a new principal.
Mr Pirie had voluntarily resigned as principal. There was no issue of severance pay or other payments, Mr Ferris said. Mr Pirie could not be located for comment.
New Zealand Principals' Federation president Philip Harding said when things went wrong it was ''very convenient to target the principal as being the cause and the solution'' and believing replacing him or her made all the problems go away.
''We say it is more complex than that and we need fairness and transparency in the process.''
