Donations live on
Schools reject ‘free’ money
More than 150 schools have turned down almost $10 million of Government money and will keep asking parents for voluntary donations.
Most of those schools say they will be worse off financially, many by tens of thousands of dollars, if they took up the Ministry of Education offer for decile 1-7 schools. If schools opt in they receive $150 per student in return for canning requests for family donations. Overnight school camps are an exception.
About 90 per cent of the 1700-plus eligible schools said yes to the money, but about 170 schools and learning facilities said no (although some schools can make late admissions to opt in).
The status quo schools represent about 66,000 students and are of all sizes, and from all over the country. Lower decile schools, which receive fewer donations, had a higher percentage of ‘‘opt-in’’ schools than decile 6 and 7 schools. Sixty high schools and colleges, representing about 45,000 students, said no.
Liston College, a decile 5 boys school in Henderson, Auckland, with a roll of 846 said if it opted in they would be about $154,000 worse off next year, given that the ministry offer would bring in about $120,000.
Board of Trustees chairman Ralph Elika told parents ‘‘it is clear that curriculum-related expenses cannot be met through donations’’.
Patrick Walsh is principal of John Paul College in Rotorua, a decile 7 school with 1178 children. He said the ‘‘overwhelming majority’’ of its community chose to stick with paying school fees and donations.
‘‘In the end it came down to, do we accept the offer with the full knowledge that it will result in a reduction of services to students? This included employing more teachers over Ministry of Education entitlement to provide a wider range of options and smaller classes, funding extra curricular activities, sports equipment, more teacher aides for those requiring learning support and extension programmes.’’
He said the donation was a game-changer in making things equal and removing financial barriers. ‘‘In the end parents saw considerable value in these ‘extras’, which we would have lost if the Government offer was accepted.’’
Kevin Carter, principal of Rongotai College in Wellington, estimated his school would have been between $25,000 and $30,000 worse off if they had opted in next year.
His school is decile 6 and has 686 students. The board’s decision not to opt in was unanimous.
He said it wasn’t about a clash of philosophies, but the practicalities of still being able to offer students what they already did.
Decile 7 Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS) in Auckland, one of the largest schools in the country, with 3088 students, was eligible, but it would be significantly worse off if they accepted the scheme.
This year it requested donations of $420 per student and $155 for a second child. A third child is free. The exact shortfall would not be known until the breakdown of next year’s roll, but could be in the hundreds of thousands.
Waiheke High School’s board of trustees chairperson Robyn Woodall said opting in could mean missing out for the 446 students of the decile 7 school.
‘‘We considered how the school, as an isolated secondary school, would be able to provide the many rich and varied learning and teaching opportunities our learners are experiencing in their curriculum subjects. On doing the sums we concluded that our students would not benefit from opting in.’’
The board of trustees at Belmont School, a decile 7 school in a Lower Hutt with 400 students, said the Ministry’s ‘‘untested initiative’’ was not clear about how it would work in practice or any financial implications and ‘‘could potentially put the school in a significantly less favourable financial position, which would have the flow on effect of putting learning opportunities for our students at risk’’.
It wasn’t just urban schools saying no thanks to the ministry.
Maruia School, a small decile 5 rural school near Reefton, chose not to sign up because of ‘‘uncertainties around the scheme’’, said principal Peter King.
‘‘Mostly, we were concerned about the impact it was likely to have on our small isolated school of 15 students in limiting our ability to reduce the barriers to success for our tamariki.’’
King said the community raised about $30,000 a year to help pay for ensuring they had two fulltime teachers on site ‘‘for as much of the week as possible’’. Families also had to pay towards transport costs for children.
‘‘The donations scheme is a step in the right direction by the Government but, as is often the case, a per student based funding formula does not take into account the unique challenges that face our smaller more isolated schools. To coin an old phrase, ‘one size does not fit all’.’’
The Ministry of Education’s Katrina Casey said it wouldn’t be known until March exactly how many schools had opted in and Minister of Education Chris Hipkins would evaluate how the scheme was working in its first year before committing to any changes. ‘‘No changes are planned at this time.’’
Some schools told the Sunday Star-Times that if the per student rate was closer to $200 it would make sense to opt in but Casey said potential changes needed to be weighed against the policy intent of reducing pressure on families to pay for costs associated with schooling.
The donations scheme will cost about $62.5 million in its first year. Schools can opt in or opt out each year.
‘‘In the end it came down to, do we accept the offer with the full knowledge that it will result in a reduction of services to students?’’ Patrick Walsh Principal of John Paul College in Rotorua