Charter school owners are confident their schools will survive the change of government even if the charter school system is abolished.
np caption Photo: 123rf.com
The Labour, Green and New Zealand First parties opposed the publicly-funded, private schools and prior to the election Labour said the schools' futures would be subject to case-by-case negotiations if it formed the next government.
He Puna Marama Trust chief executive Raewyn Tipene said she was relaxed about the future of the trust's two Whangarei schools, Te Kāpehu Whetū and Terenga Paraoa.
"My gut feeling is there certainly will be a name change, there will be some changes to the policy itself," she said.
"I think there's some room in there for us to put forward our own ideas."
Ms Tipene said there would be some advantages for the schools if they became full state schools but were similar to some existing character schools.
Alwyn Poole runs two Auckland charter schools and said a switch to special or designated character status was a likely scenario for charter schools.
He hoped any negotiations with the government would do more than simply ensuring the schools survived.
"There needs to be some improvements. For instance, we're not allowed in communities of learning, that clearly has an impact on us and it has an impact on our children and our families.
"We're not allowed any funding to expand and so at South Auckland Middle School we've got 100 kids on a wait list who would like to be within our school and can't be.
"So there are issues like that that we'd like addressed positively, rather than just survival."
The communities of learning scheme pays some teachers and principals more to lead changes in groups of schools.
Nick Hyde set up Vanguard Military Academy in the first round of charter schools in 2014 and recently signed a contract for a new school in Christchurch.
He said he was not yet sure if the schools' model of military drill combined with NCEA would work under a different arrangment and there were advantages to the contracts used for charter schools.
"Being bulk-funded, which is not how other schools are funded, allows the management and the governance of the school to pick and choose what areas the money should be sent to.
"And being very student-focused and having a contract with the government to try and get acheivements allows us to focus on that solely."
Mr Hyde said the schools were doing well and should be allowed to continue.
Auckland teacher Claire Amos said she was relieved the former National-led government signed the contract for her new charter school shortly before the election.
However, she said the change of government created some uncertainty.
"We're in a position where we need to start establishing locations, we're hoping to appoint staff - it is really challening and really difficult to move those things forward without a degree of certainty as to what the fate of the school might be."
Ms Amos said the school, planned for downtown Auckland, was similiar in nature to existing designated character schools with an emphasis on self-directed learning.
There are 10 charter schools, which the previous government called partnership schools or kura hourua, with two more scheduled to open next year and four more in 2019.
The schools are funded at the same rate as state schools but with funding in lieu of state-provided grounds and buildings, and unlike state schools their funding is delivered in bulk so they can decide how to split the money between property, staff and other costs.
