St Paul’s School: Final round of consultation

29 October 2013 – embargoed until 4pm

Final round of consultation

Following the earthquakes and the red-zoning of St Paul’s School, Dallington, the Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Barry Jones, undertook two rounds of community consultation on a proposal to combine St Paul’s School and Our Lady of Fatima School to form a new school entity on the current site of Our Lady of Fatima School in Mairehau.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has previously agreed in principle to Bishop Barry Jones’ request for the provision of:

• a new state integrated full primary school entity (to be named St Francis of Assisi Catholic School),
• with a maximum roll of 495 students,
• situated on the St Francis of Assisi Parish site at 370 Innes Road,
• commencing in term 1, 2016.

The Bishop has sought and received permission from Minister Parata to undertake a third and final round of consultation on two options for developing this Catholic schooling provision:

Option A: Cancel the integration agreements for both current schools and establish a new state integrated school on the current Our Lady of Fatima School site. In this option all positions at both schools would be terminated and positions at the new school would be advertised nationally.

Option B: Cancel the integration agreement and close St Paul’s School and increase the maximum roll of Our Lady of Fatima School and manage the staffing of the larger (and re-named) Our Lady of Fatima School as a merger. In this option the staff from both schools would have the first option of equivalent positions in the ‘new schooling entity’ with the principal’s position being advertised nationally. This option could only apply in the event that both boards and all staff unanimously support this as the appropriate option.

This further round of consultation is limited to the affected parties - the boards (the employers) and the staff (the employees) of the two schools.

The full text of the community consultation report and the Bishop’s report to the Minister can be found on the Catholic Education Office’s website (http://www.chchceo.org.nz/?sid=97), after 5.00pm on 29 October 2013.

ENDS

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