Administration

Primary principals may cut ties with Ministry

<h2>Boycott threats&comma; protests in Auckland and handwritten letters to the Ministry have dominated headlines this week as primary principals fight for a better deal&period; <&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Around 100 principals marched through Auckland this week and&comma; according to NZEI Te Riu president Lynda Stuart&comma; principals have already started voting on whether to disengage from the Ministry&comma; a move that would halt communication between the MoE and primary principals altogether&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They want to negotiate a new deal that better reflects their needs&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Along with a concerns about workload and wellbeing remaining unaddressed in the proposed agreement&comma; principals are asking for the increased responsibility of leadership to be reflected in the new payscale&period; As the offer currently stands&comma; the payscale gap between top-end teachers and bottom-end principals is closing in&period;  <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Around 2000 principals will be impacted by the results of any agreement&period; NZEI said they were &&num;8220&semi;disappointed that primary principals have rejected a settlement that was unchanged from a previously rejected offer&&num;8221&semi; but will meet with the Ministry to discuss further options this week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; right&semi;">Ministry response&colon;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Following yesterday&&num;8217&semi;s march in Auckland&comma; Secretary for Education Iona Holsted made a statement announcing she will be meeting the NZEI president later this week to discuss the issues principals have raised with the teacher-approved agreement&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;It is important that the facts about principals’ pay and the latest offer are clear&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Principals’ pay is determined by school roll size&period; This has always been the case and remains so under the offer&period; In some cases small school principals are paid less than a teacher with leadership responsibilities in a larger school&period; This is not new and the current offer does not change this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Our offer was weighted in favour of principals of our smallest schools who got proportionately bigger increases than other principals&period; The offer also included additional staff for small schools&period; We have offered to look at a range of issues raised by principals through an Accord&comma; including pay parity&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>What&&num;8217&semi;s the current offer&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>As laid out by the Ministry&comma; the current offer on the table for principals includes&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-Pay rises on 1 July of up to 13&percnt; for over 500 principals of our smaller schools of fewer than 100 students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-Also over 900 principals moving to a minimum salary of between circa &dollar;132&comma;000 and &dollar;143&comma;000 after three years &lpar;approx&period; &dollar;14&comma;000 extra&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-Another 270 principals moving to a minimum salary of around &dollar;150&comma;000 &lpar;&dollar;148&comma;400&rpar; after three years &lpar;approx&period; &dollar;15&comma;000 extra&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-Principals of larger schools would have seen considerably higher increases after three years&comma; up to a salary of over &dollar;175&comma;000&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-&dollar;1&comma;500 for union members&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>-Establishment of the Accord to address pay parity and wellbeing&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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