News & Events

Kia ora koutou,

Following my update on 20 October, this message is to let you know about the confirmed members of our Ko Taku Reo – Deaf Education Advisory Group.

​​​​​​​Denise Powell is no longer chairing this group as originally planned. This is because Denise has accepted a fixed-term appointment as Acting Executive Principal from 19 November 2022 until we can recruit a new leader for the school. In this interim role Denise will still be a very important part of the group.

In response to stakeholder feedback, we have also included a Deaf Aotearoa representative on the group.

Two parent representatives of Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners

• Grace Covey
• Helen Johnson

Three previous board members

• Anthonie De Heer - Deputy Chair of the Advisory Group
• Jennifer Smith - Chair of the Advisory Group and Māori representative
• Sam Te Maari - Turi Māori representative

One staff representative

• Chris Sinclair

One Deaf Children New Zealand representative

• Katie McMenamin

One NZSL Board representative

• Jaime Brown

One NZSTA representative

• Chris France

One Deaf Aotearoa representative

• Theresa Cooper​​​​​​​

Governance and Organisation members

• Mike Rondel – Commissioner
• Denise Powell – (from 19 November) Acting Executive Principal, Ko Taku Reo – Deaf Education
• Secretary – Cindy Cascalheira cindy.cascalheira@kotakureo.school.nz

​​​​​​​I look forward to working with the group to ensure a wide variety of perspectives are present for good decision-making around the school's governance.

Ngā mihi nui,

Mike Rondel
​​​​​​​Commissioner