RECOGNITION UPDATE

Moving forward in 2022

The AEU’s determination to recognise the contributions of First Nations people will continue to be a key part of our work moving forward.

Our Aboriginal Education Consultative Committee and our Aboriginal Members’ Conference attendees have this year reconsidered the proposed timeline for the profiling of our members.

Our initial nomination process identified many Aboriginal members for consideration, but also suggested our process was not inclusive enough.

We also decided we needed a broader focus than the naming or re-naming of two rooms at 163 Greenhill Road. There has also been a learning process about the union’s own legacy, and a realisation that our Main Hall is in fact the ‘Wilf A White Hall’, after our first fully employed president. We also are aware that our Executive are exploring a potential refurbishment or re-location.

In essence, the process is continuing “to enable acknowledgement and recognition of multiple Aboriginal members.” n

Dash Taylor Johnson

Congratulations

Thank you to the many SA members who completed the AEU’s national State of our Schools survey earlier this year.

The incentive of an iPad Pro was won by Russell Coulthard, pictured at the prize handover in Gladstone Square, Port Augusta. n

What is the Leadership Register?

How do you fill a sudden and urgent principal vacancy? The AEU’s resident expert Tish Champion sets out the guidelines.

Term 4 is always crazy in the merit selection space. There are more panels in Term 4 than any other time of the year. Schools have established their staffing needs for 2022 and all kinds of jobs are being advertised and filled via merit selection processes.

One of the main advantages of good merit processes is that it instils faith in the process. When employees believe that a merit process has been fair, equitable, transparent and free from discrimination and bias, they are more inclined to accept the outcome and the successful applicant and this in turn translates into happy, wellfunctioning sites.

There are a few boundaries and cut-off points to merit selection appointments, and Band A principal positions are no exception. At the beginning of November there were several tenured principal positions on Edujobs with panel processes due to be completed this term. So why is it then that in some instances Education Directors decide that it is too late to advertise and they are simply going to appoint someone from a register? And why is it that they do that without following process?

All Regional Education Offices hold a Leadership Register, which is a list of people who are willing and keen to take on short-term leadership roles if there is a sudden and urgent need to fill a position. The opportunity to register is usually communicated to schools at the start of each year and requires the employee to submit a CV, short application and list of referees.

How do leadership appointments from the Register work?

• If an Education Director needs to fill a principal position urgently, and there is no time to run a process, they have the capacity to place someone from the Leadership

Register for up to one term. • If the vacancy is more than a term continued over page 3