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Speaker 1: Hither due to c Ellen is the text number standard

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Speaker 1: text fees applying. Now looks like we are facing a

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Speaker 1: shortage of school board members. To fill every single board

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Speaker 1: in the country, we need ten thousand people. Only two

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Speaker 1: thousand people have applied so far. Meredith Kennett is the

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Speaker 1: school Board Association president. Hay, Meredith, Hi, what's going wrong

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Speaker 1: with he?

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Speaker 2: Wow? I don't know if there is much going wrong.

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Speaker 2: I've just had some really great updated numbers that one

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Speaker 2: of our electronic voting people, we actually have four thousand

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Speaker 2: more nominations than we knew about, so we're definitely more

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Speaker 2: than halfway there, which is great.

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Speaker 1: Hold on. So we thought it was only two thousand,

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Speaker 1: and now it's six thousand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good news?

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Speaker 1: Eh? Is that because in the last few hours all

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Speaker 1: of these people have been kicked into gear? Or did

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Speaker 1: you lose four thousand somewhere?

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Speaker 2: No, Because we've got a few different providers who are

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Speaker 2: providing the electronic voting kind of systems which are very

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Speaker 2: new to schools. We just hadn't got the up that

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Speaker 2: we thought we would, and we've gone out hunting for them,

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Speaker 2: and sure enough, there's some people sitting.

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Speaker 1: There lost one of the ballot boxes Okay, well that's

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Speaker 1: a good sign. But we're still four thousand short, right,

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Speaker 1: We've still got only sixty percent. Is that about what

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Speaker 1: you would expect or should we be worried about the

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Speaker 1: gap there?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a lot better than I felt this morning,

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Speaker 2: so that's good news. But you know, there is still

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Speaker 2: a gap, and there is definitely still room for people

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Speaker 2: to get involved if that's.

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Speaker 1: What they want to do. Okay, and how long have

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Speaker 1: we got to find those remaining four thousand?

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Speaker 2: It depends on your local school So I know that

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Speaker 2: there are schools that are closing today and there are

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Speaker 2: schools across the country who don't close till next Friday.

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Speaker 2: So it's all dependent. You have to check out.

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Speaker 1: Your own communis Meridith. So we need to find four

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Speaker 1: thousand at least by the end of next week. That

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Speaker 1: is still that. I mean, that sounds like it's still

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Speaker 1: a reasonable task, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: I think it is a reasonable But we often do

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Speaker 2: have a bit of a surge in numbers, especially with

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Speaker 2: a weekend. People have a bit of a chance to

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Speaker 2: think about it, but they're blurbed together and then then

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Speaker 2: come together. But yeah, I mean, our principles are definitely

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Speaker 2: out there scanned people and recapping people and asking them

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Speaker 2: to come along.

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Speaker 1: Is this a system that is I mean, is this

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Speaker 1: worse than normal because people are very busy with the

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Speaker 1: cost of living and all the other stuff that's going

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Speaker 1: on that they just don't have time, or is this

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Speaker 1: is this normal?

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Speaker 2: I think it's a I think it's a bit of both.

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Speaker 2: A number of principles have said that it feels a

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Speaker 2: little bit not quite as it normally would be. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's gonna come on through, now, are you there? Yeah? Yeah, Sorry,

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Speaker 2: I was just being distracted.

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Speaker 1: By the Sorry, carry on. Then don't worry about that.

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Speaker 2: Okay, good the Yeah, principles are still a little bit

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Speaker 2: worried that it's that it's slow coming through. But then

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Speaker 2: we also have some schools which are well over subscribed,

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Speaker 2: I mean my own personal school, like, for example, it

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Speaker 2: hops in for Point in Auckland. We've got twenty nominations

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Speaker 2: for six positions. So some schools are doing fine.

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Speaker 1: Meredith, is this a sustainable model if we are scratching

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Speaker 1: around just to find warm bodies to fill positions that

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Speaker 1: actually really important to a school.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's a good question. And one of

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Speaker 2: my coworkers this morning's talked about maybe a few more

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Speaker 2: people want to combine their boards and have less people,

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Speaker 2: but like it's important that communities continue to get engaged

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Speaker 2: in this school. A school is a hub of the community,

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Speaker 2: so we want to keep encouraging people to do it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So what are you suggesting that some schools, like

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Speaker 1: you might have three or four schools in an area

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Speaker 1: combine their boards and those boards look after more than

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Speaker 1: just one school at a time.

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Speaker 2: I mean it's a possibility. My board, my school board

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Speaker 2: is two schools one board, So in some areas that

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Speaker 2: could really work. There are not so many of us

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Speaker 2: across the country who are combined boards, but it's certainly

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Speaker 2: an option if people were really struggling. Yeah, and who knows,

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Speaker 2: I mean, people will come up with other options as well,

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Speaker 2: probably shoulders. Tapping is not the most sustainable model, but

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Speaker 2: it can work.

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Speaker 1: Meredith, thanks very much, really appreciate it. Meredith Kennett, school

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Speaker 1: Board Association Prison. More from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen

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