Boards of Trustees

Introduction

All of New Zealand's state and state-integrated schools have a board of trustees. The board of trustees is the Crown entity responsible for the governance and the control of the management of the school. The board is the employer of all staff in the school, is responsible for setting the school’s strategic direction in consultation with parents, staff and students, and ensuring that its school provides a safe environment and quality education for all its students. Boards are also responsible for overseeing the management of personnel, curriculum, property, finance and administration.

Trustees are elected by the parent community, staff members and, in the case of schools with students above Year 9, the students. The principal is also a member of the board.  The board can also co-opt additional trustees.  Co-option cannot be used to fill casual vacancies on a board; a board must hold a by-election to fill the casual vacancy or fill the casual vacancy by selection having first given consideration to the requirements of section 105 of the Education Act 1989.

A standard board of trustees’ membership includes:

• between three and seven parent elected trustees;
• the principal of the school;
• one staff elected trustee;
• one student elected trustee (in schools with students above Year 9);
• co-opted trustees; and
• up to four trustees appointed by the proprietor (in state integrated schools only).
  

Boards of trustees must hold elections for parent and staff trustees every three years (triennial election).  A board may also decide to adopt a mid-term (staggered) election cycle where half the parent representatives are elected at a mid-term election (18 months after the triennial election) and the remainder are elected at the triennial election.  Elections for student trustees are held annually in September in schools with students above Year 9.

Triennial elections have been held every three years since 1989.

A by-election can occur at any stage in the election cycle if an elected trustee resigns from the board and thereby creates a casual vacancy.  Although the major changes in board membership occur in triennial election years, there is still some fluctuation in intervening years due to casual vacancies, by-elections, selections and mid-term elections.

The following table shows the type of board membership and the numbers based on the 2007 triennial election results.

 

Type and number of board members (2007 triennial elections) 

Types of Board Membership	Number	Percentage
Parent elected trustee	10,499	56
Co-opted trustee	1,514	8
Principal/acting principal	2,456	13
Staff elected trustee	2,345	13
Student elected trustee	393	2
Ministerial appointed trustee	137	1
Proprietor appointed trustee	1,140	6
Other organisational appointed trustee	13	<1
Unknown	89	<1
Total	18,586	100

 
Demographic information on the trustees is collected throughout the year. An extract of this data is archived on December 1st each year and forms the basis of boards of trustees’ analysis.

Boards of trustees’ information is available by type of member, position on board, ethnicity, gender and previous experience.

 

Key Findings

The latest information on the triennial boards of trustees elections, as well as summaries of previous years, can be found in the Results of the School Boards of Trustees Elections home page.

Data on boards of trustees can be accessed via:

• Boards of Trustees statistics
• the indicator School Trustees who are Māori and its associated data tables
• the indicator School Trustees who are Pasifika and its associated data tables

 

Publications

Boards of trustees data are used as the basis for a significant amount of analysis and many publications about schooling in New Zealand. Boards of trustees data can be found in:

• the publication New Zealand Schools: Ngā Kura o Aotearoa
• the publication State of Education in New Zealand
• the publication Pasifika Education Plan: Monitoring Report 2006

 

Contact Us

If you would like to know more about boards of trustees data please email us at the following address:

Information.Officer@minedu.govt.nz

 

Support for Boards of Trustees

The New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) represents the views of, and supports and provides services to member boards of trustees. Key areas of activity are:

• representation to central government and other agencies of the views of member boards of trustees
• production of number of publications such as a monthly magazine (STAnews), and other written material, including the NZSTA Trustee Handbook, An Introduction to Trusteeship (A Guide for School Trustees) and various employment and governance related publications
• provision of “added value” services for member boards of trustees
• the provision of support, training and professional development for boards of trustees

Also provided, under contract with the Ministry of Education, for all boards:

• provision of an expert personnel/industrial relations advisory service to boards of trustees
• provision of 0800 helpdesk facilities, on all aspects of trusteeship
• an Emergency Staffing Scheme (ESS)

 

The Ministry of Education's main website has information to support school boards of trustees Information for schools, boards and staff. From legislation and governance requirements to funding and e-admin. Follow these links to go to the Ministry of Education's:

• specific Boards of Trustees pages
• general School Governance, Management & Administration pages.

 

The LeadSpace site is for principals and school leaders. School leaders will find resources relating to management and professional development. Follow the link to go to the LeadSpace area containing information about board management and operations

 

Related Pages on Education Counts

Data Collections: a description of different data collections.