A leaked report finds that council officers could have done more to address deteriorating relationships at Richmond School before the entire governing body resigned. Joe Willis reports

ABOUT a year ago the entire governing body at Richmond School resigned en-masse.

Some of the facts behind the unexpected move seeped out over the following weeks, however a new report obtained by The Northern Echo fills in many of the blanks surrounding the saga.

The confidential report was produced by Justine Brooksbank, North Yorkshire County Council assistant chief executive, in response to a complaint by former chair of governors Anne Skeoch about the authority's handling of the situation.

The documents reveal that the relationship between Mrs Skeoch and Richmond School head had been deteriorating for two years before the governors resigned.

There were several issues that increased the tension between the pair, including the head's decision to enter into partnerships with other schools without consulting governors and concerns over the head's handling of a new sports pavilion project. Governors believed these were strategic issues, and their responsibility, and the head thought they were operational and therefore his.

However, the decisive issue appears to have been a fall out over a training course for governors on conducting performance reviews of headteachers, run by the council. Mr Robertson had wanted to attend the course, however school governors were uncomfortable about this and requested that he stayed away.

Mrs Skeoch wrote to the head warning that he could face disciplinary action if he did attend. This prompted the headteacher to respond with a grievance claim against the chair of governors.

This move ultimately resulted in North Yorkshire County Council's director of children and young people's service, Pete Dwyer, concluding that the situation had become "untenable".

According to the report "the director considered the local authority had exhausted all other options at mediation, influencing and supporting and had nowhere else to go but the issue of a warning notice".

It was this warning notice which, it appears, angered governors so much that they felt that had no option but to resign.

The report concludes that the issuing of the statutory warning notice was valid, however Ms Brooksbank acknowledges that mistakes were made by council staff that may have meant the notice was unnecessary.

The report notes that the headteacher had done well since his appointment in 2010 and had overseen improvements at the school. It also finds that Mrs Skeoch was a "committed and hardworking" chair of governors who had done much to improve the workings of the governing body.

However, on the subject of their deteriorating relationship it found: "Local Authority officers involved did not appear to join the dots and have a coordinated and meaningful approach to the deteriorating relationship between the headteacher and the chair of governors and to some extent the wider governing body.

"This remains a constant question with Anne 'why did no-one just come and talk to me about it and explain why they were worried'?”

Although she points out the the deteriorating relationship was not caused by the local authority, Ms Brooksbank says in the report this is a valid point.

"(It is) a learning point going forward in terms of the local authority thinking how they best support chairs of governors who find themselves in difficult situations and the need for an honest and open dialogue and clarity on what support is available in such situations."

Other documents obtained by the Echo reveal that governors were furious that the local authority had issued the warning notice based on the opinion of officers following discussions with school managers, and without actually speaking to governors about the problems.

They felt the authority was siding with the head, a claim rejected by the authority, and failed to value or support her and the wider governing body when they were faced with a difficult situation.

In a confidential letter to other governors, Mrs Skeoch questions why anyone would want to be a volunteer school governor in North Yorkshire.

THE local authority has recently announced plans to replace the interim executive board (IEB) - set up following the resignations of the previous governors - with a permanent board of governors. Work has already begin to form a shadow board to work with the IEB for around a year to aid that transition.

The fall out from the dispute ultimately resulted in a visit by Ofsted. Inspectors confirmed last week, however, that they were happy with the running of the school, which they gave a 'good' rating.

Richmond School has endured a turbulent couple of years. The local authority's own report suggests its staff were partly responsible for that turbulence and it must be hoped that lessons have been learnt for the sake of Richmond School and others in the county.