NZCEO eNewsletter

Kia tau te rangimārie ki a koutou

Ngā mihio te Tau Hou – Welcome to 2022.

I hope, like the staff at NZCEO/APIS, you have enjoyed the wonderful weather that the country experienced in late December and January. The holiday season was a delightful opportunity to rest, recover, enjoy family and experience the joy and privilege of living in Aotearoa. In my case, I took the opportunity to ignore the news and enjoy the simple pleasures of life such as catching up with friends, playing with my grandchildren and spending time with my elderly parents.

However, the summer break will have been very testing for a number of families in Aotearoa with significant numbers of road deaths and drownings challenging their resilience. The volcanic eruption in Tonga also impacted on many Tongan families both in Tonga and New Zealand and this event was devastating for the community. I am sure you will join us in offering our prayers and support for the people of Tonga and to those families who have experienced bereavement and hardship in recent weeks.

Mā te Atua koe e manaaki

Preparing for Omicron

From the middle of January, APIS has participated in several meetings facilitated by the Secretary of Education and involving union, principal and education sector groups. The big issue challenging education at the start of 2022 is the imminent arrival of Omicron and its potential impacts on the effective running of schools. One of the biggest issues that may arise (if New Zealand follows the trends in other countries) is having a lack of teaching staff to keep schools open should Omicron spread within the school community. It appears that principals and boards will have the permission of the Ministry of Education to make the decisions they need to manage this situation which is likely to be unique to the context of each school. These decisions could include closing the school, teaching some levels of students on site with others on a remote programme or a number of other scenarios. The Ministry through its regular bulletins will continue to provide schools and boards with the details they need to manage what could be a difficult time. By the time you read this article, you will be well aware of both the challenges and the advice and support that the Ministry of Education will be providing.

APIS would encourage every school to develop a business continuity plan which identifies the risks, the what ifs and the strategies to manage this, when and if, it happens. As CEO of NZCEO, I have just gone through this process with our organisation. One outcome of our plan is that we have split the NZCEO organisation into two functioning but separate teams in order to ensure the whole team is not taken out in one hit and the organisation can continue to function through the period of the omicron pandemic. School communities are much more complex than NZCEO and the development of a business continuity plan will be a significant task but well worth it and I know of many schools who have already completed such a plan.

APIS has been impressed by the way the Secretary of Education and her Ministry team have continued to work with sector groups and principals in determining strategy to support schools. The situation continues to be uncertain, and it is sad that the new year for schools is starting under this cloud, but principals, staff and school boards now have a track record of leading and managing effectively in crisis situations and I am sure that will continue to be the case. It is pleasing to hear the Secretary of Education stating that school boards and leaders will be given the permissions they need to manage events and make appropriate decisions in their particular community.

Kei konā kei a koutou ngā whakaaro

Essential Property Maintenance Package (EPMP)

APIS approved the transfer of almost $900,000 of funding for EPMP work in the middle of January 2022. It has been very positive seeing so many maintenance projects being approved for schools who may have struggled to fund these without the support of the EPMP package. The local state integrated primary school that backs onto the APIS office in Wellington is a case in point where we have observed EPMP work being carried out that will improve the environment and educational experience for the students and staff in the school.

As at the end of December 2021, APIS had received approximately $12M in project preapproval applications and we continue to do our very best to facilitate these applications as quickly as possible. APIS will be communicating with proprietors who have yet to submit a project for approval as the clock is ticking and all preapproval applications must be submitted to APIS by August 2022 (for both tranche one and two). We appreciate the difficulties that some proprietors are experiencing in getting companies to quote on work and the shortage of key building supplies and have identified these issues in our reports to the Minister of Education. It is appreciated that despite these challenges proprietors and their property managers continue to make every effort to ensure they meet the deadlines that have been imposed.

APIS looks forward to approving the remaining EPMP projects that are yet to be submitted. It is an exciting time for our state integrated schools.

With Thanks

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of our APIS Deputy Chair Warren Peat. Warren has been an active member of the APIS executive for many years and has contributed to the strong sense of community that has been built. Warren has now finished in his role as CEO of the New Zealand Christian Proprietors Trust and, therefore, has relinquished his role on the APIS executive. We wish Warren every success in the future and congratulate him on the birth of his new grandson Te Manawaroa.

Ngā mihi manahau

Kevin Shore

Chief Executive Officer

The EPMP team had a restful break over the holidays and are back in the office processing applications. The following is an update on the last month’s Essential Property Maintenance Package (EPMP) activities:

Firstly, a big thank you to the Proprietors who have already begun to utilise or who have already fully utilised their EPMP funds. Much needed and essential projects have been undertaken as a result of accessing the EPMP funds.

88 Proprietors are eligible for the EPMP funds (out of 90). There are 321 proprietor owned schools eligible for these Proprietor EPMP funds.
40% of those proprietors have already begun to utilise or have already fully utilised their EPMP funds. Of those only 28% have had an EPMP project underway or even completed in some cases.
This means that there are 60% of Proprietors yet to access the EPMP funds through Pre-approval applications of projects. There are also 230 schools yet to have an approved EPMP project (72%).

Time is of the essence as all EPMP projects need to have prior approval by August 2022. To ensure every eligible school takes advantage of their full entitlement we would encourage Proprietors to work with their School Boards about identifying projects which facilitate the school’s Essential Property Maintenance and for Proprietors to submit their application to the APIS EPMP Office as soon as is possible. We would also encourage proprietors to consider utilising all of their eligible EPMP funds by topping up one large project.

Proprietors needing further information please make contact with the APIS EPMP Office for assistance and advice or visit our webpage for more information about how to apply for EPMP funds.

By way of examples of the type of EPMP projects that have been completed we have included the photo’s below.

St John’s School Ranfurly, heat pumps installed for summer cooling and winter heating

Whangarei Adventist Christian School's drainage project has created dry fields for playing on

Kavanagh College Dunedin, new carpet tiles in the auditorium