Appointing a Returning Officer

Boards are strongly encouraged to appoint their Returning Officer early in the process to enable them to ensure delivery of service according to requirements. Webinar training will cover Board constitutions, the Returning Officer Handbook, regulatory requirements for forms, timeline, templates, candidates’ statements and critical events for the run-up to the elections.

The Board of Trustees is required to appoint a Returning Officer for each election.   One person may be the Returning Officer for more than one election.  No person may be both a candidate and a Returning Officer for the same election.  It is usual to appoint the Returning Officer to undertake both the parent representative election and the staff trustee election (see letter of appointment).

The Returning Officer position is an appointment by the board under regulation 5 of the Education (School Trustees Elections) Regulations 2000 which is quite different to the normal employee / employer role. It is a paid position and Boards are advised to enter into a formal agreement with the Returning Officer regarding agreed services and support that will be available for the Returning Officer in their role before the role commences. In particular, it is advisable to agree on payment before the person begins work.

Don’t under estimate the importance of the Returning Officer role. It is important you appoint someone who has an eye for detail, ability to follow instructions, has good communication and can work effectively under time constraints. The Board is required to have systems and infrastructure support in place for the Returning Officer and to make sure there is no undue influence by the Principal or Board members. You need to ensure that the Returning Officer’s capacity and capability to provide the service required is in line with the legislative and regulatory requirements.

Good independent practice suggests that the school principal is not the Returning Officer.

In preparation for supporting your appointed Returning Officer make sure that your school’s student management system has the facility to extract accurate details of parents/caregivers for each student (up to a maximum of 3 for each student or group of siblings on the roll) and generate address labels for each individual person on the electoral roll.

Before triennial and mid-term elections NZSTA will contact the relevant Boards asking them to provide the name and email contact details of their Returning Officer for the elections so that a database could be maintained to ensure effective and timely communication and support throughout the elections, particularly ahead of critical dates on the election timeline.

Have you negotiated/settled the fee for the RO?

Past experience clearly points to the fact that it is far better to do it before the election process gets under way rather than after it is all over.

NOTE: The following does not apply to Student Trustee elections or by-elections. Also the following does not apply to Staff Representative by-elections, however see below.

In all other cases the fee should be set and is payable regardless of whether the election goes to the voting stage or not. The fee does not cover any election expenses; it is simply the fee for doing the work. All other expenses must be paid out of, and coded against, the rest of the Election Grant.

CALCULATING THE RETURNING OFFICER FEE

The Grant is made up of two components. The first is called the Base Rate and is the same for all Boards across the country. Currently, at time of writing (late 2010) it is about $612.60. The other is based on the school roll and again at time of writing it is about $7.01 which is then multiplied by the school roll as of the most recent roll return supplied to the Ministry of Education.

It should be noted here that the per pupil amount for stand-alone Intermediates is higher at about $10.50.

So for a school with a roll of 100: $7.01 x 100 = $701 plus $612.60 is $1313.60.

And for stand alone Intermediate Schools with a roll of 100: $10.50 x 100 = $1050 plus $612.60 is $1662.60 total grant.

As in past elections NZSTA recommends the Returning Officer be paid 50% of the base grant and 25% of the per-student grant. Using the figures above 50% will be $306.30 while 25% of the per pupil amount is $1.75 x 100 = $175.

Add those together for a total fee of $481.30.

For stand alone Intermediate Schools 25% of the per pupil amount is $2.62. Multiply that by 100 for $262.00 and add that to half the base rate for a total Returning Officer fee of $568.30.

THE ELECTION GRANT

The distribution of the grant is on a different formula using the same figures.

For triennial elections your board will have received 70% of the total election grant before the process even starts. Check the most recent Funding Entitlement Notice.

Using the figures above that is 70% of the $1313.60 which is $919.52.

And for stand alone Intermediate Schools 70% of $1662.60 is $1163.82.

The other 30% will arrive later but only if the election went to a vote and did not stop when nominations closed. The 30% payment will be prompted after the Returning Officer has filled in all the appropriate forms and sent them off to the address at the bottom of each form.

For mid-term elections the funding grant is calculated the same way.  However, the board will not receive any funding before the election.  Instead, the board will receive the appropriate amount at the end of the process when the Returning Officer has sent in the forms.

It should be noted that:

1) All the costs of the election, including the payment to the Returning Officer; are paid out of this grant and therefore there is no impact on the Board’s annual budget.

2) The Returning Officer’s fee is well inside the initial 70% distribution.

Therefore NZSTA recommends that the full fee be paid out regardless of whether the election goes to an actual vote. This is because the election process starts about five weeks before the close of voting and in the first three weeks of that time the Returning Officer has done about 85% of their work.

BY-ELECTIONS

There is no Election Grant for Parent Representative by-elections. The Board is reimbursed on an actual and reasonable basis. Therefore a claim has to be made to the Ministry of Education on the correct form with copies of all receipts attached including an invoice (provided by the RO) for the Returning Officer’s fee.

There is a maximum of $82 available to be claimed for a staff by-election using the same form.