BIRKENHEAD COLLEGE
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Trustees held at Birkenhead College on
Thursday, 28 November 2019
1. Present:
T Dobbin (Chair), C Waller (Principal), S Beattie, J Carr, R Nut er, Y Walus,
M Black
Secretary:
Reneé Lubbe
2. Apologies :
T Brooksbank
3. Minutes of the previous meeting
The Minutes of the Meeting held on 7 November 2019 were accepted.
Rutter / Wallace
4. Matters Arising: None
5. Correspondence
o Magazine – Education Gazette
o Letter from PPTA advising Mr Pageau
6. Principal’s Report
The Principal’s report was tabled, and Mr Waller spoke to some items.
o Birkenhead College have opted out of the Government school donation option. This will be
reviewed next year again.
o Deans have been appointed for 2020. Mr Nola will be a new additional dean.
o COL appointments have been made. Ten staff were interviewed, and four internal
appointments were made plus Mrs Coker will lead the COL. Staff are allowed 2 hours per
week to dedicate to COL work.
o A new Maths teacher Hyewon Do has been appointed, who is a specialist in Statistics.
o BCLT: The school is looking at applying for a grant for drainage for fields and more
landscaping.
o Funding has come through to upgrade the new Counsellors and Gateway offices in H-block.
Projectors and Whiteboards for H-block wil be leased.
o The old gym wil be reroofed next year which will improve the airflow.
o SMT are in the process of signing up with a new Website company. The maintenance of the
website wil be done by a staff member rather than paying the web company.
o The Kohanga Reo people have asked to use the Wharenui and Wharekai. The Ministry is
in the process of drawing up a Property Occupancy contract between the Kohange Reo and
the school.
o International Student numbers should be higher next year, which wil increase income.
o Current work on pathways is being carried out and, in this process, a lot of trip hazards are
being improved or eliminated.
o Mrs Alexander is retiring around the end of February next year.
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7. Committee Reports
Finance:
o The month of October resulted in a surplus of $28,948.
o The Year-to-date surplus is $148K.
Projected year-end Working Capital as at 31 December 2019 is $63,749
Budget - 2020:
o Provision for Cyclical Maintenance that is unused, wil be reallocated.
o Next year the school wil look to increasing expenditure in the following areas:
Sport
Website and Prospectus
Data projectors and Whiteboards (this wil be under a lease)
Subject items, e.g. sewing machines
Furniture and Commercial kitchen for H-block.
MOTION: The 2020 Draft Budget be accepted and approved.
Dobbin / Nutter
Property
Covered in the Principal’s Report.
8. Student Representative’s Report was tabled.
o Senior exams are well underway and wil come to a close on Tuesday 3rd of December.
Seniors have continued coming into school to study for their exams and is once again a
positive sign of BC student’s commitment to doing well in exams.
o Junior activities day wil be held on Tuesday 3rd of December and is having a revamp this
year in order to minimise costs for parents, as it wil be $5 per student, but wil stil be an
enjoyable experience for students. This year, all activities wil be run at BC and each form
class wil be assigned 4 activities for the day, starting at 8:45 and finishing at 3:15. (a normal
school day)
o Year 9 prize giving wil be held on Friday 3rd of December, where the Juniors that are
receiving awards wil be congratulated for their hard work during the year. This wil also be
the last day of term 4, and the Summer holidays wil start straight after the prize giving in
conclusion to the school year.
o BC’s first Junior ‘Fun Run’ was held on the 15th of November and was a hit among the
Junior participants. This event was reconstructed from the former Cross Country run the
Juniors did in previous years in order to gain the participation of more Junior students, and to
be more enjoyable and less competitive for all students that participated.
o Recently, a portion of year 10 students went on a trip to Rangitoto as a part of an NCEA
assessment in Science. The trip proved to be very enjoyable and interesting for the students,
as this was a practical assessment outside the classroom which isn't something the students
are accustomed to. For this experience, the students have Mr Cade and the BC science
department to thank.
o Recently the BC Junior Girls Tag Football team represented BC at the Col ege Sport
Auckland Tag Championships on Wednesday. The BC girls played exceptionally well, and
once again showed how BC sports teams punch above their weight, as the Girls managed to
come 3rd overall in this Auckland competition
o One of BC’s premier athletes: Rashaan Smith was recently offered a College Basketball
scholarship in the USA. Rashaan accepted the of er, and signed to attend Gil ette
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Community College in Wyoming, starting in August 2020. This is a massive achievement for
her as a BC student, and a well-deserved one at that, as Rashaan’s contribution to BC
Basketball over the past 5 years has been enormous and wil be missed a lot now that she’s
finished school.
o On Thursday 28th and Friday 29th of November, students that are on the 2020 councils wil
have to attend a workshop at BC for leadership training, in order for next year’s councils to
be good role models for next year’s incoming year 9’s, and all other year groups as well.
9. Staff Representative’s Report:
o Science took the entire Yr10 group and hired a vessel to Rangitoto for a 2-day trip.
o Preparing for activities day on 3 Dec.
o Enjoying lots of staff versus student games at present.
o The Yr10’s are in the process of finishing their assessments.
o Reports are eagerly anticipated by staff while looking forward to celebrating with students in
the junior prize giving.
10. General Business
o Enrolments are slow.
o PR wil be concentrated on continuing to build relationship with Birkenhead Intermediate
School staff. We have already met with BIS’s numeracy and literacy staff. Mr Allan will link
up with BIS sports staff as well. One student article was submitted into the Channel
magazine. The school wil look at trying to get more positive articles published in future.
o Really positive feedback about the new school uniform from other schools.
o The two parent representative trustees mentioned that students have voluntarily praised the
dedicated staff of this school. This has a huge impact on the students. It is beyond their
professional requirements. It is to be applauded.
o The Principal’s Appraisal Committee carried out a review with the Principal. It was a very
positive meeting and Mr Waller was congratulated in achieving and exceeding goals. The
Appraisal is not open to the public.
The Chairman thanked the trustees for their valuable contribution this year.
11. Date of next Board Meeting: Thursday 27 February 2020.
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