Staff
Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees

What is the Board of Trustees?

The Board is a group of interested citizens (not necessarily parents/caregivers) who have been elected or appointed to act on behalf of the community to ensure the successful education of all children enrolled at the school. In Lyall Bay’s case our Board is made up of 7 elected parent representatives, 1 elected staff representative and Melanie Dean the Principal.

What is the Board of Trustees for?

Every state school, or state integrated school in NZ has a Board of Trustees, who act on behalf of the school’s community to ensure that the school continuously improves student progress and achievement outcomes. The board is a separate Crown entity charged with controlling “the management of the school” and as such is accountable to its parents, the community and to the government.

What does the Board do?

The board provides strategic leadership and direction to the school. Lyall Bay has a well developed policy framework which gives direction to guide all school activities. The board needs to ensure the school’s policies are maintained and relevant at all times. The board is also responsible for providing a Charter for the school – which outlines how we will ensure the school is managed, organised and administered properly.

What doesn’t the Board do?

An important point to understand is that the Board is not responsible for the day-to-day running of the school. Our Principal (Melanie Dean) has overall responsibility for day-to-day management of the school, within the policies and delegations established and approved by the Board.

The Ministry of Education defines the difference in roles as: Primarily, the board governs, providing overall direction and control of the school, while the principal – as the school’s ‘chief executive’ –manages school operations.

How Can you Get in Touch?

The Board of Trustee meetings are “open” meetings – that means that any of you are welcome to come along and join us to observe the meetings any time you want to.

We have also created an email address just for the Board of Trustees. So if you would like to drop us an email, please feel free to send it to: bot@lyallbay.school.nz

School Policies Page Here

Board Documents