The Post Primary Teachers’ Association has named Havelock North teacher and union advocate Lisa Hargreaves as the inaugural recipient of its new Melanie Webber Award, recognising what the union calls her steady, long-term leadership and willingness to take on difficult issues.

Hargreaves was nominated by PPTA Hawke’s Bay regional chair Dylan Gray, who cited her “dedication, integrity and quiet determination,” and her habit of putting colleagues’ interests first. Hargreaves has spent nearly two decades in PPTA roles, including branch chair and secretary at Havelock North High School, years on the Hawke’s Bay regional committee, and a stint on the national executive for the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay from 2018 to 2020.

The award was created in consultation with Melanie Webber and is intended to honour “exceptional activism” within PPTA Te Wehengarua. Hargreaves said receiving the first award carried added weight because she had served with Webber on the national executive and stayed in contact with her.

Hargreaves played a central part in PPTA’s legal challenge against the Secretary for Education and four school boards over the lack of proportional non-contact time for part-time teachers — an inequity that meant many received little or none of the preparation and administration time allocated to full-timers. Although the court case was unsuccessful, Hargreaves told PPTA News earlier this year she believes it was the catalyst for securing a non-contact entitlement for part-time teachers in the 2023 collective agreement. “If we hadn’t taken the case, it wouldn’t have got this far,” she said.

Gray said Hargreaves’ work on the case showed initiative and collaboration, and that she is known for tackling branch-level disputes with practical solutions and clear guidance.

Hargreaves, who comes from a family of union delegates, said her motivation is a straightforward sense of fairness: ensuring people receive what they are entitled to. Her advice to teachers thinking about getting involved in union work was simple: “Just do it. You will not only benefit others but also yourself. You will learn a lot.”

The PPTA release did not specify when the award was presented or outline selection criteria beyond recognising “exceptional activism.”