The cost of overhauling school governance?

<h2>The New Zealand School Trustees Association has made a statement praising Minister Hipkins’ acknowledgement to Select Committee that recommendations for changing the basis of school governance would come at a significant cost&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3>The association said on Friday&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce initial report recommended that significant strategic and governing responsibilities should be transferred from community-based school boards of trustees to employed by district &&num;8220&semi;education hubs&&num;8221&semi;&period; The Taskforce is currently considering feedback on the initial report and is due to present its final recommendations to the Minister next month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Undervaluing community time and expertise has been a long-standing problem in education according to NZSTA President Lorraine Kerr&comma; and this needs to change if we truly want to improve outcomes for students&period; Since boards of trustees were introduced in 1989&comma; NZSTA estimates that it has upskilled over 100&comma;000 parents and community members including judges&comma; lawyers&comma; engineers&comma; teachers&comma; tradespeople&comma; parents&comma; other professionals and community leaders have contributed their time&comma; energy and expertise to ensure the success of schools&comma; classrooms and students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Although the stories that make headlines are the outliers where board decisions are called into question&comma; NZSTA says their experience is that boards of trustees take their responsibilities seriously and usually make good quality decisions based on sound processes and information&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Among other things&comma; boards are required to decide whether a student who has been suspended from school by the principal will be permitted to return&period; NZSTA has calculated that if these hearings were transferred to education hub employees&comma; they could cost in the vicinity of &dollar;40-&dollar;50 million each year in salaries alone&period; Time for administration&comma; professional development&comma; other duties&comma; preparation&comma; moderation&comma; or other services such as providing advice to schools or managing complaints and review processes would be in addition to this baseline&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Comparable calculations are not available for the amount of time school trustees currently spend on other board business&comma; but this donated community capacity would also need to be replaced by salaried personnel under the Taskforce proposals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;