A lament for the loss of the ‘Georgies’ service

YOUR article (ODT, 17.12.20) described the decision of the George Street Normal School Board of Trustees to withdraw the holiday programme service at GSNS.

I write as a member of the Board of Trustees at GSNS from 200718. Georgies was established about 2006 both as a service to the GSNS parent community and as a means of providing additional funding to the school, initially providing afterschool care to older children.

At the time, the Otago University Childcare Association (of which I was a management committee member 200107) provided both afterschool care and a holiday programme, operating out of a classroom on the GSNS site.

Owing to the need for increased classroom space at GSNS, the OUCA was required to vacate the building in 2010 with GSNS taking over the responsibility of offering afterschool care and a holiday programme service from the GSNS site

(Georgies).

At the time, OUCA had no alternative sites and was forced to give up afterschool and holiday programme provision in the North Dunedin community.

Given that GSNS took on the service of holiday programme provision from OUCA a decade ago, it is disappointing to see that responsibility now being abrogated with an understandable angry reaction from the GSNS parent community.

I note that the board chairwoman is quoted in your article: ‘‘Given that we knew that our parents that currently use the holiday programme would want to keep it going, consultation could be considered disingenuous’’.

Consultation is critical when considering decisions that have significant impact to a community. Wide consultation reveals new perspectives, such as that I have provided in this letter, that are important to take into consideration in decision making.

On behalf of the GSNS community, I urge the GSNS Board of Trustees to reconsider their decision and to honour the responsibility of holiday programme provision assumed by the school in 2010.

Tony Merriman

Alabama