What you must do before the election

Before the 2025 triennial board elections, your school board must:

• set an election date between 3 and 19 September 2025
• appoint the returning officer at least 63 days before the election date — if you are using the common date, the returning officer will need to be appointed by Wednesday 9 July 2025.

You can use the election tool from Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura O Aotearoa (formerly NZSTA) to help you plan the school board elections.

Election planning – School Board Elections

You should also consider:

• if you are going to use services from an election provider
• if you are holding an electronic election or a paper-only election.

Election provider services

You must appoint a returning officer (RO) for each election. Several companies offer RO services to run school board elections. There may be additional costs for this service.

We provide some funding for election costs.

School board elections funding

If you appoint a provider as an RO, you will:

• contract the provider to run the elections
• need to provide the roll information and eligibility to the RO or provider.

You can discuss the options with the provider.

Electronic voting

If you want to use electronic voting, you must use an accredited provider.

You must still make printed voting papers available.

Find details about accredited providers on the board elections page.

School board elections

Paper-based elections

Schools can use a paper-based process.

The timeline for both electronic and paper-based elections is the same.

Promote the election

You should promote the election within your community. This encourages the community to get involved by standing, nominating, and voting in the elections.

Te Whakarōputanga has resources and tips to support boards with promoting engagement. 

Promoting the elections – School Board Elections

After the election

When your election is complete, you need to send the new board members' details to us and Te Whakarōputanga.