Central New Brighton School

Notice Board
  May 14th
Many parents have been asking for updates on the proposed merger. Earlier this week I met with a senior person from the MOE as they are trying very hard to address our concerns and meet our needs. After that meeting I felt we had been heard and I felt a little bit more confident about the outcome. We are expecting to hear officially at the end of May. Once I have more details I will ensure parents are notified and that all parents get the chance to resond to the decision.

April 9th

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March 28
Our submission to the Minister of Education is complete and has been handed in. Many thanks to all the families who helped and contributed with our consultation process: we now wait until the end of May for her response.

Principal Update
February 18 2013
Dear parents
This morning Liarne and I met with two representatives from the Ministry of Education so they could deliver the outcome of the proposed merger.
We are devastated that the interim decision is that the merger will take place,  with CNB merging with South New Brighton on the SNB site.  We are gutted that the date of the proposed merger has been brought forward. In September the Minister announced that no merger would take place before 2016: she has now brought this date forward to January 2014! This means that after 124 years of being an integral part of the community this will the last year for education at Central New Brighton School.

The process for the merger is still unclear however it would appear;

·         Support will be given to families in order to transition to a new school ( school uniforms etc)

·         Some transport assistance may be made available.

·         Our teachers and support staff will get to apply for positions at South New Brighton School and these will become effective in January 2014.

·         A change manager will be appointed to CNB to manage the  merger process.

Next steps in the process

·         The Board have 28 days to make a further submission to the Minister.  As a part of this submission we could ask for an extension of the time frame … if that’s what our staff and our community want.

·         We can also ask for some reassurance around continuing support for families  eg. duffy books, fruit in schools programmes.

The Ministry addressed our issues and concerns about safety – stating ‘ The safety concerns about tsunami risk that the CNB school Board has about the SNB school site are not shared by the Ministry.  According to NIWA Modelling of coastal inundation, the two school sites are in a comparable position.”

Obviously we still hold grave doubts and will continue to pursue this issue. I will post the full Ministry response on our school website under our school merger page.

Our next steps:

·         At 9:15 tomorrow we will hold a community meeting in our school hall to listen to your concerns and we will endeavour to answer   your questions.

·         We are prepared to hire buses to take the whole school and any community members into the protest march at the CBS arena tomorrow. Is there support for this? Please let me know by 4 pm Monday if you would like a seat on a bus for tomorrow afternoon – leaving school at 3:15 and returning about 5:30pm.

I know this news will be as shocking for parents as much as it has been for staff. Our focus at CNB has always been our students and their learning. Be assured that in the months ahead we will continue to put children at the centre of all we do as we continue to advocate on their behalf and on your behalf.

Please don’t panic and/or react hastily… we still have ten months ‘to work together to be the best we can be!”

Kia Kaha

Toni Burnside

Principal



Next Monday, 18th February, the Minister will announce her decision on school mergers and closures. I will post the outcome on our website at 11am. Parents are invited down for a bar-b- q lunch and swim in the pool from 12 -2pm. At 2pm  school will close for the day and all children will be sent home.
On Tuesday 19th February at 9:15 all parents and community members are invited down to our school for a formal debrief. This will be the chance to ask questions and get some clarity on the next stage of the process.