Overview of School Board Representation

School Boards of state schools must hold elections for parent representatives every three years. A board may also decide to adopt a mid-term election cycle where half of its parent representatives are elected at a mid-term election (18 months after the triennial election) and the remainder are elected at the triennial election.

Triennial elections have been held every three years since 1998.  A by-election can occur at any stage in the election cycle if an elected parent representative leaves the board and creates a vacancy. Although the major changes in board membership occur in triennial election years, there is still some fluctuation in intervening years due to by-elections and mid-term elections.

In 2020, 59% of schools with at least one Māori student had at least one Māori representative on the school board. Similarly, 60% of schools that had at least one Pacific student had at least one Pacific parent representative on the school board.

To find out more about parent representation on school boards, refer to the following indicator reports:

Time Series Data

These spreadsheets provide percentages of schools with proportional Pacific and Māori parent representation on the school board across time in a simple, easy to use format.

School Board Representation Technical Notes

Active participation by Māori and Pacific parents in planning, development and delivery of education services will help to ensure that those services are appropriate and effective for Māori and Pacific students. Māori and Pacific representation on school boards is one key mechanism for participation.

School Boards of state schools must hold elections for parent representatives every three years. A board may also decide to adopt a mid-term election cycle where half of its parent representatives are elected at a mid-term election (18 months after the triennial election) and the remainder are elected at the triennial election.

Triennial elections have been held every three years since 1998. A by-election can occur at any stage in the election cycle if an elected parent representative leaves the board and creates a vacancy. Although the major changes in board membership occur in triennial election years, there is still some fluctuation in intervening years due to by-elections and mid-term elections.

The Measure

Interpretation Issues

This indicator is restricted to parent representatives. As a parent representative - in this indicator - we consider any elected or co-opted member. All other members were excluded, i.e.:

• Principal
• Ministerial appointed member
• Proprietor's representative
• Staff representative
• Student representative

This indicator is restricted to state schools, i.e. state and state-integrated schools. Schools that were excluded from the analysis:

• Schools with insufficient Māori student numbers to expect at least one Māori parent representative on the board.
• Correspondence school (as their board is appointed by the Minister)
• Closed schools (closed before December the 1st of the particular year)

In a case where two or more schools share a combined board only the 'lead' school provides us with its board members. In that instance students from all these schools are considered to determine the proportion of Māori parent representatives or Pacific parent representatives we would expect on the board. Schools with satellite units such as teen parent units are treated the same way.

Trustee members are able to nominate up to two ethnicities.¹ If a trustee member states themselves to be Māori in either of the first two options then they are assigned a Māori ethnicity. If a trustee member states themselves to be Pacific in either of the first two options then they are assigned a Pacific ethnicity.

For a small number of schools, it is apparent that some trustees have been recorded as either belonging to 'Other' ethnic groups, or the ethnicity code had not been recorded, whereas in previous years the same trustees specified their ethnic group. To correct for this anomaly, the first ethnic group recorded for each of these trustees has been assigned. For example, if a trustee was appointed to a board for the first time in 2006, and was recorded as Māori, then no ethnic group was recorded for them in 2007, the ethnic group for this member in 2007 will be reassigned as Māori.

Footnote

1. For analytical purposes, ethnicity is determined hierarchically, assigning ethnicity in the order: Māori, Pasifika, Asian, European/Pākehā, and Other/Not Stated.