Outside and internal people are being used by the Waitaki Boys' High School Board of Trustees to act on recommendations in an independent assessment that said the school was ''at a point of crisis''.
While the board and its chairman, Garry McLeod, rejected the suggestion the school was in crisis, it has appointed internal and outside expertise to help it give the recommendations ''immediate attention'', as urged in the issues report prepared by Dunedin education consultant Cleave Hay.
Details of the report were made public in Saturday's Otago Daily Times after being released in an edited form by the board.
Included with the material sent to media, school staff and pupils' parents was an outline of the actions being taken.
Mr Cleave had said the board needed ''deliberate reflection'' on the report and to consider outside professional assistance or request a statutory appointee [from the Ministry of Education].
The board commissioned the report following concerns and issues raised by some parents, teachers and others in the community about management and administration at the school. It first considered it in a meeting with Mr Hay on June 30.
Since then, it had been reflecting on the issues and implementing Mr Hay's recommendations, which it took ''very seriously'', Mr McLeod said.
The issues were based on interviews Mr Hay conducted under terms of reference prepared by the board, but there were also ''repeated allegations and concerns'' that he felt were of significance.
Despite that, Mr Hay found everyone had ''a passion and love'' for the school and he found no-one vindictive or vexatious towards it.
Issues raised with Mr Hay were student-to-student bullying, student-to-staff bullying and staff-to-staff bullying, significant staff turnover in the past 12 to 15 months, staff not being supported, the accuracy of information on scholarship funding, relationships with other schools, engagement and communication with the community, student behaviour systems, relationships with the board of trustees, the state of property and buildings, a growing drugs culture, the school's reputation and its effect on enrolments, a lack of pastoral care for students and staff and not being inclusive for vulnerable or high-needs students.
Some of those issues would also be looked at by the Education Review Office (ERO), which starts a regular review at the school today.
Apart from ERO's processes, the board is aiming to complete its investigations by September 30 at the latest.
The board is handling the nine recommendations
1) Investigate all the reported matters in the report - Board representatives Garry McLeod, Maree Thompson and Phil Hope, former John McGlashan principal, consultant and now Selwyn College warden Michael Corkery, and former Waitaki mayor and Oamaru businessman Alan McLay.
2) Review all school-based systems - ERO.
3) Review employment processes - Ms Thompson, New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) industrial adviser Lynne Guy and NZSTA human resources adviser Jane Pridham.
4) Review staff welfare - Ms Thompson and NZSTA and Ministry of Education governance and management consultant Tom Scollard.
5) Review of student welfare - as part of 1).
6) Recommendation edited out of report - Mr McLeod.
7) Exit interviews to be offered to staff who have left - former Waitaki Boys' deputy rector and now Otago Rural Support Trust co-ordinator Dave Mellish.
8) Review of governance and performance of board of trustees - Mr Hope and Mr Scollard, with NZTA assistance.
9) Complete and satisfactory processing of the formal complaints - Mr Hope and Ms Thompson.
