‘Shameful’ – Union slams former charter schools’ use of public money

<h2>New Zealand&&num;8217&semi;s largest education union&comma; NZEI Te Riu Roa&comma; has delivered a scathing response to the findings of an inquiry into how former charter schools used public funds&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Office of the Auditor General’s inquiry into management fees paid by former charter schools&comma; South Auckland Middle School and Middle School West Auckland&comma; has raised serious questions and action should now be taken against those responsible&comma; says NZEI Te Riu Roa President Liam Rutherford&period; He said&comma; the OAG inquiry&comma; &&num;8216&semi;shows how flawed the Act Party&&num;8217&semi;s Charter School’s policy was&comma; particularly in regards to financial accountability&period;&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the inquiry report&comma; Auditor-General John Ryan criticised the board of the two former charter schools for paying &dollar;450&comma;000 of government funding to the schools owners&comma; prior to them joining the state school system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;21727" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-21727" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-21727" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Auditor-General-John-Ryan-2021-300x188&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"188" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-21727" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Auditor-General John Ryan<br &sol;>&NewLine;Image&colon; Office of the Auditor-General<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The circumstances of this payment create a perception of a lack of integrity&period; Acting with integrity&comma; and being seen to act with integrity&comma; are fundamental to maintaining the public&&num;8217&semi;s trust and confidence in public organisations and in the public sector as a whole&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the report said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Such an obvious mishandling of public money that should be spent on benefiting the schools&comma; educators and tamariki is shameful and the Board needs to be held to account&comma;” said Rutherford&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Adding&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Act&&num;8217&semi;s claims that Charter Schools would be more accountable than public schools has been shown up for as erroneous&period; In fact&comma; one of the huge problems with the Charter Schools model has always been the potential for financial mismanagement&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;20424" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-20424" style&equals;"width&colon; 298px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-20424" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;08&sol;Liam-Rutherford-NZIE-2021-298x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"298" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-20424" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Liam Rutherford<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This week&comma; Villa Education Trust <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;new-chief-executive-for-education-council&sol;" title&equals;"chief executive" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">chief executive<&sol;a> Karen Poole defended the accusations&period; The Trust opened the &&num;8216&semi;<a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;high-level-of-interest-in-partnership-schools-applications-welcomed&sol;" title&equals;"Partnership Schools" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Partnership Schools<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi; in South Auckland in 2014&comma; and West Auckland in 2015&period; Poole told media in a statement&comma; &&num;8220&semi;We are confident that we handled this prudently&comma; appropriately and with strong governance protocols in place&period; We worked closely alongside the Ministry of Education teams and followed their guidance at all times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;While ultimately we accept the OAG&&num;8217&semi;s findings that there could have been better documentation around the relationship and scope of work between the two entities&comma; we remain comfortable that the school establishment was within the establishment budget we were given by the Crown for the changeover and was spent diligently on the school establishment process&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Villa Education Trust&&num;8217&semi;s wesbite states&comma; &&num;8220&semi;In 2014 the Trust opened a Partnership Schools in South Auckland with a second opening in West Auckland in 2015&period;  At the end of 2018 the Partnerships Schools closed due to Government policy and became Designated Character Schools&period; This means they are now state schools and still operate under the Villa Education Trust model&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rutherford adds&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;How the Board didn’t recognise a very obvious conflict of interest is at the very least&comma; irresponsible&period; Those responsible should resign immediately&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;