Community keeps school open

Woodbury School has been saved, thanks to the community.

A new board of trustees has been appointed and the commissioner assigned by the Education Ministry to govern the school has officially left.

Next week the board will appoint a chairperson.

Principal Claire Haugh said the community was an important part of the school and had been very supportive.

The new board members are Danette McKeown, Melanie Lithgow, Evelyn Plows, Tom Burnett, Peter Towers and teacher representative Maureen Bromwich – all of whom are past, current or future parents of pupils at the school.

Mrs Lithgow has been a resident of Woodbury for seven years and is the mother of two young children.

Mrs McKeown has been in Woodbury for five years and has three young sons.

Mr Burnett has three children at the school and is a qualified butcher and shearer, while Mrs Plows has three children and is a parent of the school.

The fifth board member, Mr Towers, has lived in the Woodbury district for about 15 years and his two children have been through the school.

Last year, the Education Ministry appointed Nicola Hornsey to take over the school after its board of trustees resigned en masse in August.

Troubles continued when the school's former principal resigned in January.

The board cited the school's declining roll, which fell from 67 pupils in 2005 to 26 in 2009, as the reason for the resignations.

Mrs Haugh said 24 pupils would start school next year, followed by four new entrants who would enrol during the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News