Former Rangiora High School Principal Peggy Burrows Wins Unfair Dismissal Claim
The Truth will always come out:
I am so happy for Peggy Burrows. It has been a long and arduous journey for the truth. I taught at Rangiora High School and held Peggy in high regard.
Media Release 14 January 2017
“Relieved” is how dismissed Rangiora High School Principal Peggy Burrows is describing the way she feels about comprehensively winning her unfair dismissal case against Commissioner Beverly Moore.
The decision from the Employment Relations Authority has comprehensively upheld her appeal for wrongful dismissal as Principal of the school she had led for 13 years, awarding her one of the highest awards ever of $150,000 plus costs.
“I believe this was always about getting me out so the Ministry could control the school and its $14M in financial assets. I thought it was vital to protect those assets and advocate for the students, staff and community,” says Mrs Burrows.
The two-week hearing into the employment dispute between Burrows and MOE Commissioner Beverly Moore was heard over seven days beginning on September 13th 2016.
“I am thrilled to have won so definitively however the more than half a million dollars of school money the commissioner has spent on pursuing this case means there are no real winners. That’s money which should have been spent on the students and staff at Rangiora High,” she says. “It was extremely important to me and my family to clear my name and not be remembered for something I did not do. My heartfelt thanks go to the community and teaching staff who stood by me and my family during this very difficult time. I am also very thankful for the overwhelming support I have had locally, nationally and internationally.”
Mrs Burrows said from her home in North Canterbury that she is still considering her options with regards to reinstatement, as the ERA determination did not support her request.
ENDS
There will be no further comment at this time.
Key Points from the Determination:
Unfair dismissal comprehensively upheld, on all three grounds
Had Peggy Burrows not been dismissed she would still have been principal
Peggy Burrows did not contribute in any way to the issues on which the commissioner based her decision to dismiss
There were no grounds for dismissal
Often an award will be reduced as in some way the dismissed person has contributed to the reasons for dismissal, however in this case, no reduction was made as the unfair dismissal was comprehensively upheld.
Clarification:
In April 2015, there were inaccurate reports in the media regarding Mrs Burrows’ attendance at an international conference at Pennsylvania State University in the USA. Mrs Burrows’ attendance was fully sanctioned by the Rangiora High School Board of Trustees, prior to the arrival of commissioner Moore. In addition to annual budgeted professional development funding Mrs Burrows has a fully funded scholarship from the University of Canterbury to undertake this important research into Māori student achievement. There was never any question of impropriety around her participation at this conference.
END
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Further important update to all Neighbourly members
Dear Neighbours,
We wanted to update you with what we have uncovered in regards to the potential Neighbourly data breach which we were alerted to on Thursday January 1.
Over the past few days we have worked to understand whether our members’ data had been accessed without authorisation and, if so, the extent of the breach.
We have now confirmed that there was a breach of some data from our registered users. We are now satisfied that the breach was quickly contained, and we have restored the Neighbourly site and services.
Our investigations have shown that there was unauthorised access of Neighbourly data, which included our registered members’ names, email addresses, GPS coordinates, forum posts and member communications. It did not include passwords but some publicly advertised event and business addresses were included.
Following best practice, we will look to seek a court injunction against any use of the material.
We want to apologise to our members for this occurrence and any concerns it may have caused you over the past few days. We have, of course, addressed the issue that allowed the theft to occur, and we are satisfied that the site is secure for use by all of our members. We will work closely with all our staff to ensure we have the most robust processes in place to prevent it from happening again.
Thank you to our members who contacted us over this period and for the understanding you have shown as we work through the complex issues associated with cyber theft.
Q&A regarding Neighbourly data breach
The Team at Neighbourly
A Craft a Day: Simple Projects Using Pegs, Sticks & Resene Testpots
A craft project a day keeps the boredom away. Entertain kids with these easy arts and crafts projects using pegs, ice block sticks and Resene testpots. Find out how to create and paint your own peg crafts with these easy step by step instructions.
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