Decision to shut school `unfair'

The Ministry of Education misunderstood its consultation obligations leading to an injustice when it considered closing Aorangi primary school, the school's Board of Trustees has claimed.

In the High Court in Christchurch today the board is trying to head off the decision by the Education Minister to close Aorangi  on January 27. 

It is seeking a judicial review of the minister's by Justice Christine French in a hearing that could take up to three days.

The school board's lead defence counsel, Paul Cowey, said: ''It is the plaintiff's case that the ministry misunderstood its consultation obligations. What may have been done in good faith, has nonetheless produced an injustice.''

The school is questioning the method of the board's consultation process, saying it breached natural justice, and the timing was not reasonable.

One of the school's two counsel, John Caldwell, told Justice French: ''Essentially, the board feels it did not have the benefit of fair play in action.

''The decision to close the school on January 27, with the school holidays intervening, is simply unfair or unreasonable.''

The decision was dealing with the rights, education, and welfare of 88 children on the roll, and the rights and careers of the staff and principal.

He said a proper consultation process was indispensable to a decision on closure, but the ministry had not disclosed all the information available. The board needed the reasoning of the ministry, and the data it held, rather than just the closure proposal itself.

Mr Cowey said the consultation process had as much bearing on the quality of the minister's executive decision as it did on the issue of fairness to the school board.

He contended that the ministry's letter to the board had set up a parallel consultation process which ''effectively required the board to undertake a wild goose chase''.

Proceeding

- NZPA