Call to pay expenses to school boards

SCHOOL board officers should be paid expenses for their voluntary work, a school management leader claimed yesterday.

As more than 25,000 people begin a four-year term on primary school boards of management this morning, the amount of expertise they must have on legal and other issues is increasing every year.

About half of the boards of the country’s 3,000 Catholic primary schools have a non-clerical chairperson, a role once almost always the exclusive job of the local priest. But while principals are paid an extra allowance for acting as board secretary, other officers do the job on a voluntary basis.

“There is major concern that the chairperson, for example, should not be out of pocket for doing board business. They often have to take time off from their own work for job interviews or to attend appeal hearings,” said Monsignor Dan O’Connor, general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association.

The association supports schools operated for the local diocese and has also called for local authorities to stop levying water charges on schools.

“I’ve met with a number of boards in the west of Ireland this week and they’re all worried about it. One small rural school has just got a water bill for €5,000 and another is being asked for €10,000,” said Mgr O’Connor. He said dozens of primary schools are in debt that they cannot clear, leaving the local diocese to pick up the costs.

The management association and the Department of Education have published guides for school board members. The eight members of each board include two nominees of the patron, the principal and another teacher representative, two parent reps and two members of the community.

The National Parents’ Council — Primary, said it is important to keep some voluntary element but it can take two years for new members to familiarise themselves with issues.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) called for a professional support service to help boards.

“If there were people available at the end of the phone for advice on legal or human resources issues, for example, it could reduce the workload for principals,” said INTO general secretary John Carr.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday thanked the thousands of people on the outgoing management boards for their contribution to the effective and efficient running of schools since 2003.