O'connor Elected Chair Of Amesbury Drive School

O'connor Elected Chair Of Amesbury Drive School Board

Rory O'Connor has been unanimously elected as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees for the new school at Churton Park - currently called Amesbury Drive School.

Mr O'Connor has a wealth of experience in the education sector and is a local resident of the Churton Park community. A former teacher, teacher’s college lecturer, curriculum developer and educational administrator he is very well qualified to provide experienced leadership to the Board’s work programme.

"I am delighted to accept the Board's nomination to be Chairperson and I look forward to working with the other Board members to achieve our goals for the school. We have a lot of work in front of us but we also have a very strong team of Board members and I have every confidence we can deliver the outcomes within the timeframes required" said Mr O'Connor.

The Board has also created its own blog in order to keep the local community updated as events unfold. The blog can be found at www.amesburydrive.blogspot.com

At its second meeting last week the Board met with Wellington City Council officers to discuss the beginning stages of the development of a Project Plan for the new school site. A designation process will need to be completed prior to building commencing. However, it is expected that several work streams can be carried out in parallel in order to stay within the timeframes set down by the Ministry.

"One of the early areas of attention will be to develop the Vision of the new school and to develop a community consultation process to ensure the local community has an opportunity to have input to the Vision" said Mr O'Connor.

The school plans to open in Term 1 of 2012 at the site on Amesbury Drive which was purchased by the Ministry of Education.

At last night's meeting the Board also decided to join the School Trustees Association (STA) which is an organisation set up to help provide advice and resources for school Boards of Trustees.

ENDS