Schools advised to work with election timeframe in mind

Association of Proprietors of Integrated Schools chief executive Dr Kevin Shore said his association “has a strong focus on engagement with the Minister of Education and the [Ministry of Education] over the first half of 2026”.

“APIS has two meetings with the Minister of Education scheduled over the first part of 2026 as the election cycle is such that little will be achieved in the second half of 2026 as parties go into election mode and Crown agencies move into a type of maintenance phase where the decision-making process slows down or comes to a complete stop,” Dr Shore said.

“If proprietors are wanting to make an application for a maximum roll increase or any other change to their integration agreement, then our advice would be to try and submit this early in 2026 rather than later.”

Dr Shore also noted Ministry concerns that “they did not have enough experienced state-integrated principals who had submitted applications to be part of their mentoring initiative for beginning and aspiring principals”.

Dr Shore had sent a message to principals about this and received responses back highlighting issues such as principals just under the experience requirements for mentoring, but who are keen to be involved, as well as principals who have applied to be mentors but have not received any acknowledgement of the status of their application.

Dr Shore said he would raise such issues with the team responsible for the mentoring programme.

He also encouraged proprietors and school boards of state-integrated schools to consider making a submission on the Year 0 to 10 draft curriculum content. Consultation is open until Friday, April 24.

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