Te Kura Board of Trustees Meeting
Minutes of meeting held Wednesday 3 June 2020
Skype for Business
Present
Barbara Ala’alatoa (Chair), Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai, John Chemis, Ruma Karaitiana,
Mele Wendt, Stuart Middleton
In Attendance
Mike Hollings (Chief Executive), Regan Dooley (Chief Advisor, Strategy), Viv Rogers (Deputy Chief
Executive, Systems and Support), John Nisbet (ex-officio), Te Rina Leonard (Deputy Chief
Executive, Learning Delivery), Anne Coster (Deputy Chief Executive, Curriculum).
Scribe
Sandra Rekatsinas (Board-Executive Administrator).
Apologies
PROCEDURAL
Section
Subject
APOLOGIES
The Board meeting was declared open 11:00am, starting with a
Karakia...
Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga
Kia mākinakina ki uta
Kia mātaratara ki tai
E hī ake ana te atakura
He tio, he huka, he hau hū
Tīhei mauri ora!
The Board Chair, Barbara Ala’alatoa welcomed attendees and noted the formalities for the meeting.
Te Kura’s Board Chair, Barbara Ala’alatoa’s services to education have been recognised with a Queen’s
Birthday Honour, becoming an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Congratulations were
extended on behalf of the Te Kura Board of Trustees and the Senior Leadership Team.
1
MEETING ADMINISTRATION
1.1
Conflict of Interest Register Noted the updated Conflict of Interest Register to include additional declarations from Board member,
Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai.
1.2
Agenda Review
Noted the Agenda was reviewed.
1.3
Minutes of the Board meeting
The Board
received the Minutes of the Meeting held on 6 May 2020 and
approved them as a true and
accurate record.
Moved
Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai
Seconded: Stuart Middleton
1.4
Action items Noted progress on the action points, including confirmation that a one-page high-level new structure for
senior management was received by Board members.
In addition, Board members were asked to advise the Board-Executive Administrator by the end of the
day if they would like Te Kura to issue them with Te Kura equipment.
1.5
Board Meeting Schedule 2020 Noted the Board Meeting Schedule 2020.
COMMITTEE REPORTING
1.8
Employer Committee Work Plan 2020
Noted the Employer Committee Work Plan 2020 and key matters considered:
-
The repositioning of the Board External review to take place for August-September 2020.
-
Agreed to the 2020 CE Performance Agreement with the additional comments taken into
consideration.
Section
Subject
Final 2020 CE Performance Agreement
Noted and
approved the signing of the final 2020 CE Performance Agreement.
Explained the scope of the CE performance review has been refined to focus on Systems Capability and
Big Picture as the two priority items within the overall plan.
Moved: Stuart Middleton
Seconded: Ruma Karaitiana
Employer Committee Minutes held on 8 April 2020 Received the draft Employer Committee Minutes held on 8 April 2020 for ratification at its August
meeting.
1.9
Risk Assurance Committee Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 March 2020 Received the Risk Assurance Committee Minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2020. The main
emphasis of the discussion was the fluctuation of costs (over and under) in the context of Covid-19.
Moved: Stuart Middleton
Seconded: Ruma Karaitiana
2.
CHAIR’S REPORT.
2.1
Chair’s report
Noted this item.
3.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE REPORTS
3.1
STRATEGIC
Noted this item.
3.2
Health and Safety Dashboard
a)
Noted the Health and Safety monthly statistics for April 2020.
b)
Noted Graph 1 Reported Accidents and Incidents. There have been eleven reported work
incidents in 2020, an increase of two reported incidents since last month’s report.
c)
Noted Graph 2, Sick Leave Days taken in April 2020:
i.
Te Kura employees have taken a total of 56 days of sick leave in April 2020. Two long term
leave cases inflate this number as they account for 36 of these days with the remaining 20
days of sick leave claimed by 10 employees
ii.
Significantly less sick leave was taken in April 2020 compared with April 2019 (a 74%
reduction)
iii.
Year to date there is a 10.8% decrease in overall sick leave taken when compared to the
same period in 2019
iv.
We are investigating this decrease in sick leave applications, but we attribute it mainly to
COVID-19 Level 4.
d)
Noted there have been no new stress or bullying incidents reported in April.
e)
Noted in response to COVID-19 Te Kura initiated a Kaimahi Wellbeing Project to support Kaimahi
during this time. This has been favourably received with routinely over 90% of kaimahi being
assessed as ‘okay” by their team leader/manager following weekly one on one discussions with
them.
3.3
Chief Executive Monthly Progress Report. The Chief Executive covered the following matters in his report:
•
Big Picture: A refresh of Te Kura’s Intranet and Website is needed to ensure all content is current
for the purposes of completeness and in support of Big Picture.
•
Becoming a Bilingual organisation: It is pleasing to see how Kaimahi have fully embraced the te reo
language, with attitude and motivation, despite some external feedback received that its focus is
having a negative impact on akonga. There was also mention of having too many Maori words in
panui.
•
Systems capability: The impending rollout of the Learning Object Repository is significant.
•
Teacher Allocation: This work will identify efficiencies for allocation of akonga to kaiako and
kaimanaaki as well as address equity of student and teacher ratios. More importantly, working in
partnership with schools to deliver Summer School this year.
•
Telling our Story: Great messages of appreciation and positive feedback received from internal and
external stakeholders on Te Kura’s communications
. It was noted that whilst Te Kura’s Facebook
posts are good, more regular posts to engage in effective ways to raise the profile of Te Kura would
be welcome.
Section
Subject
• An interest was expressed in knowing more about the provision for akonga and whanau during
Covid-19 and whether there is enduring work to keep learners coming back to Te Kura as an option.
It was noted this is largely hindered by the criteria of the Enrolment Policy, except for the Young
Adult cohort. Furthermore, noting steps to improve the promotion of Te Kura as:
Setting up of Regional Stakeholder Management Plan to reach out to other organisations and
government departments to raise awareness of Te Kura offerrings for referrals.
Attendance at the Principal Association meetings to develop a national strategic network and
giving thought to holding a nationwide open promotional day for Te Kura.
Discussed the gateway for Covid-19 remains open and there have been very few students enrolled,
including international akonga. There is no provision to offer NCEA offshore so content can be
delivered but assessments are unable to be offered. In the meantime, NZQA is considering an
online proctoring tool for digital exams domestically.
•
Maori Student Success and Te Kura’s involvement with using the approaches of Ka Hikitia and Tau
Mai Te Reo. Further noting, the recent appointments of new te reo Maori Kaiako in Northern and
Central North regions. Interviews are underway for Senior Teacher, Kaupapa Maori and another
Kaiako Kaupapa Maori for Curriculum levels 1-4.
•
Pasifika: Exploring ways to promote the Samoan Language. Courses for L3 are progressing strongly
and quality and structure of content is pleasing.
Further to the work in Central South region in engaging with Pasifika, the question was raised
whether this will be emulated across other regions in Te Kura. Also, whether Te Kura will be
promoting other Pasifika Languages weeks happening over the rest of the year. This is an
opportunity to engage online with various pacific communities throughout Aotearoa and in region
and having sustained online celebrations of those languages.
•
Summer School: The proposed approach and mechanisms for collecting information is to conduct
surveys to schools and Te Kura’s workforce as part of the plan to support NCEA levels 2 and 3. The
aim is to gauge supply and demand on intentions to teach and learn in Summer School. The Board
will be appraised on progress via the CE Board report.
•
Pacific Plan: Work is underway on a draft regional delivery plan. It is anticipated that the
timeframe of the draft will be completed ahead of the next Board meeting. The next iteration will
be sent to the Board Chair, Barbara Ala’alatoa and Board member, Mele Wendt to provide some
initial feedback.
•
Pacific Realm Countries: A dedicated student advisor has been appointed to engage with these
schools. The aim is to travel to Rarotonga to visit and support the schools; undertake and develop a
supervisory plan and programme as part of the Pacific Engagement Plan.
•
Learning Support: The role of the Programme Manager Learning Support will review Te Kura’s
approach to Learning Support, provide some national consistency to regional delivery across
Te Kura.
3.3A
COVID-19 Report – Update as at May 2020
Noted the discussion about Te Kura’s concerted effort in providing resources to MOE. This has not had
the impact anticipated and very few schools have had access to the resources. Further requests received
from the Ministry of Education, include:
• Te Kura providing access to all its Primary material and regularly updated.
• The live platform will remain until February 2021 and will be made available to schools.
• An ordering mechanism for working from home equipment will be rolled out to staff shortly as
approved at a recent Extraordinary meeting of the Board.
Section
Subject
Noted the Pre-Board discussion included two items; the question of when elections will be held for the
Staff Representative on the Board and that kaimahi were grateful for the generous offer of support from
the Board on the working from home equipment.
Today’s Press Release update was in relation to the temporary changes to NCEA and UE for this year.
The Board acknowledged with confidence the CE and his SLT for the huge amount of work done and all
that has been achieved in the Covid-19 environment.
Moved: Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai
Seconded: Ruma Karaitiana
4.
FINANCE
4.1
Financial Report
Noted this report as considered by the Risk Assurance Committee and the fact that revenue has
increased, expenditure is down and projected forecast is well positioned.
Moved: Maxine Moana-Tuwhangai
Seconded: Mele Wendt
5.
APPROVALS
5.1
Governance policies
Noted this item.
5.2
Statement on delivery of health education for adoption
Approved the adoption of the written statement on how Te Kura will implement health education
within its curriculum. The recent consultation has identified the need to carry out an audit of
Curriculum levels 1-5 with assistance from Kaiako Matua. In addition to this work, auditing and fine
tuning of Te Kura’s Health Curriculum across Te Ara Tipu and Te Ara Hau is being linked clearly to the
work of the Wellbeing curriculum from a strategic level.
Moved: Mele Wendt
Seconded: Ruma Karaitiana
6
NOTING AND INFORMATION
6.1
Inwards Correspondence/Outwards Correspondence
Received notification from the State Services Commission to Departmental Agencies and Crown Entities
on Pay restraint in the Public Sector in the context of COVID-19. Though this was not sent directly to
Te Kura, it provides context.
Confirmed that the information on content has been communicated as appropriate.
6.2
Enrolment Statistics
Noted that overall, the most significant increase is up 21% for full time students.
Noted that cumulative enrolments have slowed down due to a rise in Subject Not Available and
Alternative Education enrolments in 2019 May.
Noted that snapshot enrolments have remained steady particularly for FT cohort due to Ministry of
Education Referral enrolments.
Noted it is expected that 2019 trends for Yrs 9-13 and full-time cohorts should be similar to 2020 with
the largest enrolments being in the first half of the year.
6.3
May Progress Indicators Report Against 2020 Charter and Annual Plan
Noted the May Progress Indicators Report against the 2020 Charter and Annual Plan and summary of
engagement progress and achievement rates on how Te Kura is tracking against its goals across all
cohorts.
Noted the decrease in achievement rates for full-time and Maori cohort with rise in full-time referral
enrolments is the primary contributor to the decrease in achievement.
Noted that Covid-19 lockdown has led to marginal increases by akonga logging into MTK.
Noted lower figures for Pasifika is in part due to a small sample size.
Received that management has every confidence in Kaiako to be able to give appropriate advice to
akonga on NCEA requirements.
In addition to the matters discussed, Te Kura has received an outstanding managing assessment report
from NZQA.
The Board to receive a screenshot of Te Kura’s widget that outlines akonga’s progress towards
qualifications.
Section
Subject
6.5
Student Journey Project
Noted this report on the Student Journey Project. The project aims to improve akonga allocation to
kaimanaaki, engagement and smoother transition of onboarding. The tool will be trialed with the
Overseas team and Central North region in term 3 for planned implementation in 2021.
The idea of conducting research and write up on lessons learnt from this project for sharing with
kamiahi would be valuable.
Consideration of an attrition pathway that finds data for akonga that are not succeeding to enable staff
to make meaningful interventions was also suggested.
GENERAL BUSINESS
7
NEXT MEETING
July 2020
I move that the public be excluded from the
In Committee section of the Board’s agenda. This motion is made in
reliance of Section 48 (1) of the Local Government Information and Meetings Act 1987.
The general subject matter to be considered while the public is excluded, the reason for passing this resolution
in relation to each matter, and the specific grounds under section 48(1) of the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 for the passing of the resolution is:
General subject of each
Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each
Ground(s) under section 48(1)
matter to be considered
matter
for the reason for this resolution
CEO Matters and
Where the exclusion of public is necessary to protect the
s.48 (1) (a) (ii)
Personnel/Staffing Matters privacy of natural persons [OIA 1982 s.9 (2) (a) refers, and
also where necessary to avoid prejudice to the School’s
commercial activities [OIA1982 s.9 (2) (i) refers].
Sub-committee Reports
Avoid prejudice to commercial activities (OIA s.9(2)(i) refers)
s.48(1)(a)(ii)
and
protect the privacy of a natural person (OIA s.9(2)(a) refers)
Stakeholder Matters and
Protect the privacy of a natural person (OIA s.9 (2)(a) refers)
s.48(1)(a)(ii)
Media Issues
I also move that, Mike Hollings, Viv Rogers, Te Rina Leonard, Regan Dooley, John Nisbet, Anne Coster and Sandra
Rekatsinas as be permitted to remain at this meeting after the public has been excluded because of their
knowledge of these matters.
Moved: Barbara Ala’alatoa
Barbara Ala’alatoa
Date: 3 June 2020
Board Chair
