2/08/2018
School Closure letter to parents from BoT Dear Parents and Caregivers, The Board of Trustees has decided that Sunnybrae Normal School cannot remain open to provide either teaching or supervision for students during the upcoming teacher strike. The New Zealand Education Institute (the Trade Union for primary teachers) has advised the Board of Trustees that due to the lack of progress in negotiations, the principal and teachers at our school will be taking strike action on Wednesday 15 August 2018. The Board has carefully considered the availability of teaching staff and unfortunately decided that we can’t provide the normal teaching services during the strike nor can we provide sufficient staff to provide supervision for children within the school grounds. The School will be closed on August 15th and it’s important that you make alternative arrangements for the care of your child/children on the day of the strike. I know this is inconvenient for parents and students alike but please be assured that student safety is our main concern. Whilst the Board is not involved in these negotiations, I believe that I speak for the Board of Trustees members when I say that we support the teachers in their decision to call for a better deal from the Government and for improvements to be made in the pay for teachers and the terms and conditions of their employment. It is unfortunate that seeking to have the teaching profession treated and paid with more respect is going to cause this inconvenience to families all over the country. These are real issues and do affect even a well regarded school like Sunnybrae. We have found it noticeably harder to recruit new teachers and fund adequate support staff. Part of these issues must be linked to the comparison between the cost of living in Auckland and teachers’ salaries. I hope that no further strike action will be needed but we will not know how the negotiations will progress from this point. One thought that does occur to me though is that governments are responsive to public opinion; so to help avoid the inconvenience of future strike action it may be useful to contact Chris Hipkins the Minister of Education and ask him to ensure that the negotiations reach a satisfactory conclusion without the families of New Zealand having to suffer the inconvenience of any further strikes. Further information about the strike can be found on the NZEI website https://nzei.org.nz/ or the Ministry of education website http://www.education.govt.nz/ . The Minister of Education can be emailed at c.hipkins@ministers.govt.nz . Thank you for your understanding. Please contact me if you have any queries relating to the board’s decision. Yours sincerely, Terry Sugrue Chair Board of Trustees