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Catholic schools and tagged positions and teachers who may not be able or willing to uphold special character

Mr Harris made this Official Information request to St Patrick's Catholic Sch (Te Awamutu)

This request has an unknown status. We're waiting for Mr Harris to read a recent response and update the status.

From: Mr Harris

Dear St Patrick's Catholic School (Te Awamutu),

I am a NZ citizen and resident. This information requested (further to my previous request) is in the NZ public interest as it concerns maintenance of an integration agreement between the State and a Catholic school/diocese in regard to upholding special character in a school, and is in the public interest as it's of interest to local Catholics who want to support the education of Catholic students in their region.

I'm asking for the following:
Position descriptions and person specifications for principal, deputy principals, and DRS at St Patrick's TA. For clarity, the descriptions and specifications used when current staff members in these positions were appointed.

Board meetings minutes for January, February, and March 2023. These are not online. Also minutes of any special Board meetings in 2023, and minutes, briefs, notes, and terms of reference, and any other information, including information not yet written down, for any subcommittees or working groups set up this year or since November last year in response to concerns or ideas or requests from school or parish families.
I believe any privacy concerns can be allayed by redacting private information.

Board policies regarding relationships between staff or Board members who are in a reporting relationship.

St Patrick's school / board of trustees (Board) policies/standard practices regarding:
What steps/process/policy does the Board take or follow if a teacher in a tagged position is publically known, or known by Board members and/or school staff, to have/take, or discloses having or taking, an ongoing practice/belief/position that is in conflict with Catholic doctrine and practice, meaning that he/she can't be an exemplar of Catholic teaching and belief and thus is unsuitable, unwilling, or unable to continue to meet the responsibility or commitment of filling a tagged position at St Pat's - including such positions/practices/beliefs as an ongoing same-sex romantic relationship, an attempt to contract a same-sex marriage, an irregular relationship such as what's often described as "remarriage", public ongoing dissent in word or deed from an aspect or aspects of Catholic doctrine/teaching, conversion from the Catholic religion to another, or to no, religion,or other.
What steps would the board take in addressing with a teacher in this position their position/practice/dissent?
Have there been any situations in the last six months where the Board or school has enacted these policies/procedures at St Patrick's?

Yours faithfully,
Mr Harris

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From: Mr Harris

Dear St Patrick's Catholic School (Te Awamutu),
For clarity, "Board policies regarding relationships between staff or Board members who are in a reporting relationship" refers to ongoing, or casual/short term, romantic relationships.
Could you please confirm receipt of this request and of my last message in my previous (now overdue) request?
Yours faithfully,
Mr Harris

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From: Anna Gallien
St Patrick's Catholic Sch (Te Awamutu)

Dear Mr Harris

Official information request for Catholic Schools, tagged positions,
upholding special character and integration agreement.

I acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 26 March,
2023.

We received your request on Monday, 27 March 2023. We will endeavour to
respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than
27 April, 2023, being 20 working days after the day your request was
received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

Your request is being handled by the board. If you have any queries,
please feel free to contact me. If any additional factors come to light
which are relevant to your request, please do not hesitate to contact us
so that these can be taken into account.

Yours sincerely,

Anna Gallien

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Mr Harris left an annotation ()

Previous request is https://fyi.org.nz/request/21867-minutes...

It's interesting to compare the initial responses to the two requests.

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From: Anna Gallien
St Patrick's Catholic Sch (Te Awamutu)


Attachment 26 03 2023 Response and Second OIA Response.pdf
317K Download View as HTML

Attachment Annex A with redaction.pdf
9.9M Download View as HTML


Dear Mr Harris, 
Apologies for the late time of night but we were conscious of this special
day and the weekend ahead, giving assurance we would try to respond to you
by today. 
Ngā mihi,
Anna.

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