Wednesday 25 August 2010

Vol. 3 No. 38

Coober Pedy school chief thrown out

THE assistant principal of Coober Pedy Area School has been suspended because of misconduct allegations by the school governing council.

Kym Taylor was escorted from the school yesterday and placed on paid leave while the Education Department investigates.

It is the second time this year that a principal has been removed, after former head Sue Burtenshaw left following an inquiry into her tough stance on students and treatment of parents.

In The Advertiser this week, Ms Taylor spoke out about her sacking, saying the school was in "chaos" under interim principals.

Both Mr Weatherill and Education Department chief executive Chris Robinson labelled her comments "inaccurate" and said that it was a range of factors that led to her suspension.

Mr Robinson said new allegations were raised about the assistant principal's conduct by the Governing Council and they requested her removal.

"I was already concerned that actions by the assistant principal in making inaccurate public comments about the behaviour of students at the school had undermined the efforts of the school community to move forward in the best interests of students," he said.

"On the basis of this conduct and allegations raised by the Governing Council, I have grounds to suspend the assistant principal while matters raised about her conduct are investigated."

Mr Weatherill confirmed he had received a letter from Ms Taylor "some time ago" regarding an increase in truancy and suspensions at the school but he was advised that the numbers were "inaccurate".

According to the letter sent by Ms Taylor, suspensions had almost tripled and student absenteeism had doubled under the new leadership of the school.

Education Department figures provided to The Advertiser show Coober Pedy Area School's average attendance rate remains steady at 71.1 per cent, compared with a 78 per cent high achieved by Ms Burtenshaw in 2008.

Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni is calling on the Education Department to "release to the public any reports relating to the incidences" so that a balanced decision could be made.

ELECTION 2010

Rowan Ramsey re-elected as MP for the House of Representatives seat of Grey

First Preferences Votes in the electorate of Grey

(Enrolment: 99,817   Turnout: 78.98%)

Candidate                                                     Party                      Votes          %           Swing (%)

MELVILLE-SMITH, Andrew Colin          The Greens            5,535         7.43                 +3.31

SANSBURY, Tauto Australian                   Labor Party         23,790       31.95                  -6.71

RAMSEY, Rowan                                         Liberal                 41,130       55.24                 +7.98

HOLLAND, Sylvia                                      Family First            4,002        5.37                 +0.87

National Party of Australia (S.A.) Inc.                                              0         0.00                  -3.06

Australian Democrats                                                                        0         0.00                  -1.23

Other                                                                                                   0         0.00                  -1.18

FORMAL                                                                                  74,457        94.45                 -1.30

TOTAL                                                                                       78,831        78.98               -15.97

Provisional voters reminded to provide their evidence

of identity to make their vote count

  The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is reminding all voters in South Australia who cast a provisional vote on election day Saturday 21 August and didn’t provide evidence of identity on the day that they have until Friday 27 August to fulfil this requirement.

The Australian Electoral Officer for South Australia, Dr Christopher Drury said that voters may have cast a provisional vote on election day because their name or address could not be found on the list of voters or it appeared their name had already been marked off.

“The AEC must receive evidence of identity from provisional voters by 5pm on Friday 27 August 2010 or their vote cannot be counted,” Dr Drury said. 

On election day a ‘voter advice document’ was provided to each voter who cast a provisional vote without providing an accepted form of identity.  The document informed them of their obligation to provide evidence of their identity by this Friday.

These voters can visit an AEC office to show an accepted evidence of identity document or they can mail a photocopy of the document, provided it has been sighted and signed by an authorised person, to an AEC office. 

Please note this requirement only applies to voters who cast a provisional vote on election day and did not provide evidence of identity on the day – and does not apply to any other voter.

Provisional votes are only counted after a careful check of enrolment records are made to confirm the provisional voter’s eligibility.

For the addresses of AEC divisional offices, visit www.aec.gov.au or call the AEC on 13 23 26.

Coober Pedy Police News 19/08/2010

Tidbits

DELEGATES REPORTS

Cr T Doulgeris – Multi Cultural Forum

Cr K Woon – Drive In Committee

Cr P Athanasiadis – Coober Pedy Retail Business & Tourism Association Inc

D Clark – Library Board