Scary Saturday

I've finally cleared out the damage caused by He Who Must Not Be Named, and freshened up the posting area.  Much better.  Must remember to add more garlic to the Blog-mix to keep these parasites away.

Today is the day that the Board of Trustees (BOY) of Nuova Lazio High interview and appoint our new Principal.
This is the same BOT I laughingly called "stupid soft-centered liberal wishy-washy do-gooding bunch of namby-pambies" and a "group of do-gooding viewers of the world through rose coloured glasses " in previous posts.  They are going to choose our new Principal from a list (allegedly) of 4.

Candidate 1 (Scary and incompetent)

Candidate 2 (Scary and Competent), Likes Dancing

Candidate 3 (Scary and Foreign)

Candidate 4 (Scary and Competent)

Most New Zealanders are aware of how schools work.  The government give them money, the Principal manages the school with a senior management team, and the BOT make decisions on the way they want the school's culture and rules to apply.  The BOT is elected from the local community, mostly parents of our pupils.  But there's a problem.  Anyone can stand for election and there's a lot of apathy.  Some members get elected unopposed because there's not enough candidates.  This means that almost anyone with any sort of agenda can become the boss of a school.

Our BOT is I suppose fairly average.
We have 3 parents, one of them is a teacher at another school, one is the mum of one of our troubled girls, and one has a single agenda about school uniform.
We have a committee-addict, who is in so many groups and committees I've lost count.
We have the single staff representative who battles valiantly against the forces of do-goodism
And there are another couple of new members that I haven't met yet.

These people, only 2 of them trained and qualified in education are going to choose our new Principal.

Candidate selection process

I don't envy them their job, but I also don't really think they're qualified to do the job.

In the UK, most of these appointments are done by the local council.  For a Principal appointment the interview panel would probably be:
The convener/chairperson of the education committee
2 Education advisers (qualified educators, assisting all local schools in differing aspects of teaching and learning)
2 Established Principals from local respected schools
A Deputy Principal from the school with the vacancy.

Somehow, I don't think the NZ system has the same level of expertise.

I really worry who our BOT is going to choose.

It could end up in a disaster for all concerned. 
Especially if they choose He Who Must Not Be Named,