NZSTA - 2012-3

Early closedown for pay period 2502: A reminder to all schools that pay period 2502 has early closedown dates because of Easter. Paper instruction closedown is 5pm Thursday 5 April 2012.

SLS and RTLB amalgamation: It was announced this week that the Ministry of Education will start work to amalgamate the Supplementary Learning Support (SLS) service with the Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) service. Further details can be found on TKI.

Units “a few queries”: Some questions coming in recently so timely to squash a few myths and legends.

1 Units can only be distributed for “management” duties? No, the term “management” units or MU has long since gone. The collective agreements only refer to units. In the case of primary they are specified for the purposes of “management, responsibility, recruitment, retention and/or reward,” The secondary are more open in that “the employer will determine the use of units” following consultation. Further information on units and other allowances paid to teachers can be found on the Ministry website.

2 Do we have to publish who has got units or 3R payments? No, that is personal information it is sufficient as part of your unit distribution policy to identify how many are distributed on a fixed or permanent basis.

3 In primary and special schools any reduction of salary units must be managed first and then remove the remaining teachers holding permanent salary units from the needs analysis process?: No, The needs analysis is the key driver and is done first, unit holders may be affected by the process. The Ministry and NZSTA have made it clear to the NZEI that we do not agree with their position.

NZSTA Advice re Official Information Act Requests: There have been a few general requests to boards recently that have caused attention. This is a reminder that boards are legally required to respond to requests for information and that you need to provide this response within 20 working days. For more detail on the board’s obligations under this Act see material prepared for boards by the Ombudsmen http://www.ombudsmen.parliament.nz/imagelibrary/100476.pdf.

Police Operation SNAP and Schools: We have been asked by the Police to provide you with some information to assist them in preventing crime and particularly theft and burglaries in schools. See a brief outline of what Operation SNAP is about and how you can participate.

Student Elections Common Date: A little early but some boards are already starting to plan the year. We are going to suggest that Friday 21 September be the date this would be a week before end of term 3. Votes would be counted Thursday 27 September and the student trustee would take office on 28th – last day of term.

Easter Tuesday Who gets paid?: We recently clarified the situation for Caretakers and Cleaners. The same general rule applies across other collectives for Support Staff, Kaiarahi i te Reo, Therapists', ATSSD, Special Assistants' and Groundstaff (note this also has an incorrect ref).

Middle and Senior Leaders Resource: This resource has been released this week, and is now live on the Educational Leaders website. It describes these roles and the special contribution that middle and senior leaders make towards improving educational and social outcomes for all students. It describes the contexts in which these leaders operate and highlights the relevance of the educational leadership model (ELM) to their roles. This resource has a series of case studies.

MinistryWeb Resources Updated: The Ministry have updated and improved access to information provided to boards and their employees. In TKI the Education and the Law section containing general guidance on legal issues for schools has been updated. In the main Ministry website the information on employment of teachers, principals and support staff for employees, boards of trustees as employers, and staff who manage employment in their school or kura has been revamped and access has been vastly improved.

NZSTA Trustee Handbook (the Black Book) Review and Update: Work is now underway to update this valuable membership resource and it will be reprinted for distribution in May. A searchable electronic version will also be made available online on the NZSTA membership area. Member boards should have recently received their new access login.