Minister Misleads Listeners

Minister Parata mislead viewers on Morning Report, when she defended Mr Eru’s excessive and exorbidant fees for his work as Commissioner in Moerewa School.

Mr Pat Newman, President of Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association states, ”The Minister implied these costs were for his whole time in this role, which they clearly were not. They were for purely a snapshot covering his first year, 12 months in the job. He has since collected another 6 months of fees from the schools.“

“Mr Eru’s monthly charge for Moerewa since April/May this year has continued, and based upon his average cost over the first 12 months of $12000 a month, would bring the cost to the community of Moerewa to be approximately $140000 ($95k for first 12 months as disclosed earlier) in fees for his total time, plus approximately another $80000($53kfor first 12 months).

A total cost of approximately a wopping $220000 or $1375 for every child in the school… And don’t forget the income from the other schools he is involved in,” continued Mr Newman

Mr Newman stated, “The Minister further mislead the listeners by saying Mr Eru needed to be there for this long period to sort out the qualifications of the students. This refers to the secondary students who were removed from the school in the first few days of his tenure.

All problems associated with their qualifications were sorted out in a few months through a NZQA Review, which found there actually were not big problems.

So what has the $12000 been spent on? Documentation to justify the invoices is non existent. There is wide debate about the number and content of any community meetings. What we do know, from the legal reasons for the Commissioners Appointment by Ms Parata, is that there is no longer any legal or educational issue that necessitates Mr Eru to be in this school.

ERO Reports confirm this. This leads people to believe that the only reason left, is political, based upon the principals standing up to the current Minister on National Standards!”

Ms Parata stated this morning that it was fine for commissioners to be paid for out of a school's operation grant.  She said, in effect, that Boards are funded to run a school, and since the Board was not doing the job, the funds should be used to pay a commissioner.

“Good simplistic logic,”says Mr Newman, “except Boards funding for a whole year, for all of them is about $5000 NOT $220000!!!” the difference comes oput of the badly needed funds for the children’s learning”

“This debate needs some honesty. It needs Mr Eru gone from continuing to line his pockets with the money that the children of Moerewa School badly need. “ concluded Mr Newman

ENDS 456 Words
Contact Pat Newman
President Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association

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