Carenne Support asks for new members

On the inside back cover of the Carenne Special School newsletter for June is a report by Paul Knight, chairman of Carenne Support. Mr Knight talks Carenne Support up saying that it helps the school by providing therapy to 18 of its students and how it receives a grant to transport children to Carenne. Mr Knight also talks about how Carenne Support has done seating and technology assessments.

The Carenne newsletter also asks for people to attend the Carenne Support meeting on 20 July 2010 and to join as a member of the organisation.

Salmon pleads not guilty, matter set down for hearing

The case of Geoff Salmon, director of Carenne Support who is facing the Bathurst Local Court on charges from an alleged incident during a protest in December where he is accused of attacking whistleblower Brian Carter who was driving a protest vehicle will return to court for hearing on 7 September 2010.

Mr Salmon faces charges of entering a vehicle unlawfully and obstructing traffic arising from the alleged attempted carjacking. Mr Salmon's solicitor told the court yesterday that he would be maintaining his plea of not guilty and would defend the charges.

Escorts on student transport vehicles paid just $12.05/hour

A woman contracted to the NSW Department of Education and Training to supervise students with serious medical conditions and behavioural concerns in transit between home and school has hit out at the department for paying a paltry $12.05 per hour.

The woman, who is contracted to be a student transport escort has asked that Carenne Gate not name them for fear of reprisals from staff at Carenne Special School.

The escort told Carenne Gate that she was shown a payslip from an aide at Carenne which showed they were being paid around $25.00 per hour. The escort told Carenne Gate:

"Our work isn't that different from that of an aide except we are required to supervise the students as well, in the classroom an aide isn't to supervise students, that is the teacher's job. We have a higher duty of care and are paid less than half, it isn't fair."

The rate of pay is also significantly under the federal minimum wage of $14.31. It is believed that the department gets around this by employing its escorts as contractors instead of as employees.

"How are we contractors, we bring nothing to the job, there are no tools of trade. We can't possibly be contractors, we are paid to supervise kids on their buses," the escort told Carenne Gate.

It demonstrates just how the NSW government looks after its employees and contractors at the lower levels of the pay scales while looking after top level bureaucrats and contractors such as Carenne Support which are connected to the department.

Blog attacked again

Following carennetruth's disgraceful conduct last night, this blog was attacked again, this time by an unknown attacker. We have now set up a mirror blog which will be updated from this one from time to time at carennegate.wordpress.com

Dubbo Teacher didn't know she was breaking the law by having sex with a student

Extract from the Daily Liberal:
Jailing a former Dubbo teacher who had consensual sex with one of her students would do more harm than good, District Court Judge Stephen Walmsley determined yesterday.
The married woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was in Dubbo District Court for sentence. She had previously entered guilty pleas on two charges of sexual intercourse with a person aged 16 to 17 years under her care.

Judge Walmsley convicted the teacher and imposed suspended prison sentences of 21 months and nine months. She was required to enter into good behaviour bonds and accept supervision and guidance from the Probation and Parole Service for the duration of the sentences.

Judge Walmsley said the purpose of punishment was to assist in the rehabilitation of the offender.

Given the psychological history of the teacher he determined a full-time custodial sentence would cause harm and set back her rehabilitation and ability to contribute to society.

Puppet Premier passes the buck on Carenne

Once again, NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has passed the buck on issues relating to Carenne Special School to her education minister Verity Firth, who has a history of simply ignoring complaints from people associated with this website.

On the 10th of June I sent a complaint to the premier relating to the conduct of Lee Churches, in particular the calling of a 10 year old student a "slut" and claiming she initiated a sexual relationship with a student when she was aged 8. I also complained about the claim made on this site that Anne Baskerville had a tent in her classroom used by some students as a "masturbation tent" and the continuing inaction by Peter Harvey and Gary Bevan against Lee Churches' behaviour on this blog including bullying and harassing parents, leaking confidential information about them and admitting she has access to school files and police records through another staff member which she uses to get a "one-up" on dissenters. Both of these men have been provided with proof that Lee Churches is "carennetruth" .

Today, I received a letter from the Department of Premier and Cabinet informing me that my complaint would be looked at by the education minister who misled parliament last May over the department providing legal representation to a contractor. In the past I have been told the same only for Ms Firth to not get back to me.

Ros Luther and Di Klavins change tactics in dealing with student.

Over the past several months, Carenne Gate has reported on very serious concerns surrounding the way in which Ros Luther and Di Klavins dealt with an autistic students. The duo first came to our attention when it was reported that they would sit on an autistic student and call the police on him (only to get off him when they were warned the police had arrived).

Commentators on this site also alleged that Mrs Luther had been seen pinning the student against a wall and locking the student in a storeroom.

It was reported by this blog two weeks ago that Mrs Luther and Mrs Klavins weren't applying these same techniques to another student in their class who's mother was involved in Carenne Support, the school's corrupt charity. Instead the pair would call the student's mother who would try to calm him down.

The student is now restrained and then locked in what we have identified as the torture chamber until his parents arrive to take him home. When his parents arrive at the school, office staff call the classroom and they take the student out of the torture chamber/sensory room/storeroom.

Review recommendations hidden from parents

Carenne Special School executive staff have deliberately kept parents from knowing what the recommendations of the Snowden Review were according to staff. Carenne executive staff and those running the review have already been criticised on this blog for failing to follow the department's School Development Policy.

It was alleged in March that Neil Moon, the current principal of Carenne who is presently facing a serious criminal charge before the Local Court did not inform parents what the terms of reference were for the review.

Our expert on school reviews tells us that it is ordinary practice for the actual review report to be released to parents and the school community, even if only in part. In the case of Carenne this has not been done, despite Neil Moon claiming on 31 May 2010 that:

"We now need to build a scaffold to respond to the recommendations - set up a timeline to meet the recommendations; we have already started responding to the recommendations."

This statement by Mr Moon in staff meeting minutes makes a mockery of claims by Assistant Principal, Lee Churches (better known to our readers as Carennetruth) that the review found nothing. The recommendations by Snowden's team must have been numerous for there to be a requirement for scaffolding to meet them.

If school management has required so many changes then there are obviously a plethora of issues at Carenne which Mr Moon is now keeping from the parents.

Carenne KLAN missing in action

A number of Carenne Special School staff have contacted Carenne Gate this afternoon saying that they find it strange that the three key players in the Carenne KLAN - Lee Churches, Michael Auld and Simone Russell were absent from school today. Staff claim that they were left in the dark about why they were away.

All staff who reported the majority of the KLAN being away said they were glad they had a day without them working with them.

"It was almost relaxing today, no bitching, lying, backstabbing or setting up. If Carenne was like this everyday there would be less problems. Even the students seemed calmer today."

Another Carenne staff member said they believed it was likely that the trio were making a group worker's compensation claim blaming this blog for their "stress".

When will DET do something about Lee "Carennetruth" Churches?

Following her trail of destruction on this blog last night where she bullied parents who she believes have made complaints about her, named students, spoke about students in a horrendously derogatory manner one must ask when will something be done about Lee Churches.

The department has been provided with IP address logs and email headers clearly showing that Carennetruth is Lee Churches but they have done nothing.

Is Lee Churches your blog spokeswoman Mr Moon?
When will Peter Harvey and Neil Moon do something about this woman?

By not acting, the department is looking as though it is condoning her behaviour.

"Torture chamber" in Ros Luther's classroom

Several weeks ago, it was commented on this blog that Michael Auld was planning on misappropriating Rudd computer funding to create a "sensory room" at Carenne. It was alleged that he must have siphoned the money off elsewhere because the room hadn't been created. It was also alleged that Ros Luther and Dianne Klavins had been locking a severely autistic student in a storeroom.

It has been learned by Carenne Gate that the storeroom in Ros Luther's classroom has been converted to a mock sensory room. The room, which is around 2 metres by 3 metres according to staff has students locked in there for up to one hour at a time while they are observed using a camera mounted inside the room.

Concerned Carenne staff have contacted Carenne Gate and reported that students are terrified of the room due to its small size and the items inside it. One staff member commented -
"Tuesday afternoon, Di Klavins was bragging to me about how they were watching this student that they usually sit on in the room on the camera bashing at the door wanting to get out, laughing at him. When they let him out they called him 'chicken' and when he had a melt down placed him back into the room until his parents picked him up."

Another staff member said -
"I approached Neil Moon about it and told him that it was nothing more than a torture chamber. That is all it is. They put kids in there and watch them on a camera, laughing at them when they freak out. It's sick and twisted. It's another of Michael and Ros' torture methods,"

"When I told Lee about it she was horrified."

It is yet another example of the complete and utter incompetence of staff at Carenne Special School.

When are you going to admit you have some real problems inside Carenne Neil?

When will Neil Moon, the current principal of Carenne Special School who is facing criminal charges in the local court along with two of his assistant principals show the courage to admit that the problems at Carenne are coming from inside the school?

Only last week, Mr Moon and his boss Peter Harvey were provided with evidence showing that Michael Auld has been leaking information from the school. Both of them of course did nothing.

Over the past week we have seen "carennetruth", widely known to be Lee Churches post disgusting comments about parents including one's alleged criminal history which she claims to have received from Simone Russell. We have also seen Ms Churches post that a specific parent would be being prosecuted for not sending their child to school.

Last night, we saw postings on this blog from Seymour and carennetruth indicating that they were aware that parents had made complaints yesterday to Kate Price at the Bathurst Schools Office.

We have also seen posted information about an issue with Lucy Thornton allegedly changing a student in class against the rules and when interviewed by Neil Moon about it claimed there was nowhere nearby to do it. Who else would know this besides Carenne staff?

My question to you Mr Moon is if these problems are all caused by outsiders how do they know so much detail?

In Mr Moon's staff bulletin for Term 2 Week 8 he said -

"I know it is tough at times with outside influences. We need to maintain our focus on the students. The other will disappear in time"

Mr Moon also noted that a team of personnel from DET Security, IT Security and Legal Branch are working on the email and ongoing issues from "last week". According to the minutes of the meeting held on 31 May, this blog was discussed and staff were told to keep their passwords and emails secure.

My second question of the day to Mr Moon is if all these problems are caused by outsiders how do I have a copy of your meeting minutes for nearly all meetings this year and how do I have your staff bulletin?

I think it is time that you look at the obvious instead of you keep running with the ridiculous.

When will Lee "carennetruth" Churches be stood down pending an investigation into her leaks of personal information to this blog?
When will there be a full and proper investigation into child abuse claims at Carenne?
When will the persecution of those who speak out end?
When will Neil Moon be man enough to admit that there are problems at Carenne?
When will Neil Moon admit that his SS Carenne leaks like a sieve?

... and one final question for Mr Moon - are you an imbecile to believe there are no problems at your school and that all the issues are coming form these "external influences"? I don't believe you are Mr Moon. I believe you are an intelligent man who is just too scared to be screwed like former Carenne principal Lyn Duncan was.

Ros Luther and Di Klavins give special treatment to one student

Staff at Carenne Special School concerned about the policy of restraining a student in the class of Ros Luther and Di Klavins' by having several staff sit on him have expressed dismay at the way in which a student with a similar disorder is treated by comparison.

Staff claim that another student can be equally as difficult when he is having an autistic episode and that instead of calling for backup staff to come and sit on him, they simply call his mother. Staff believe the special treatment comes from his mother's involvement in Carenne Support.

Staff claim that prior to the student's mother's involvement in Carenne Support that he would be subjected to similar barbaric punishments such as locked outside in the area identified as the pig pen, locked in a storeroom or pinned against the wall.

These types of punishments and strategies must be stopped before someone is seriously injured and Carenne Gate will continue to call for change at Carenne Special School. We also feel that staff involved such as Ros Luther and Di Klavins, who users on this blog have called "monsters" must be immediately dismissed.

Lee Churches and Lyn Duncan commit another criminal offence

Lee Churches, one of the senior staff at Carenne Special School facing a criminal charge in the Bathurst Local Court in relation to a whistleblower and Lyn Duncan, former principal of Carenne have committed a criminal offence, this time with a possible 10 to 14 year gaol sentence.

A well-known Carenne whistleblower Brian Carter lodged a Freedom of Information application in May after reading leaked emails about himself on this blog. Documents provided under that application would have been used in criminal proceedings against Lee Churches. Mr Carter today was told that the documents do not exist.

Carenne Gate understands that the process is for the department's FOI unit to request the documents from staff who hold them, in this case Lee Churches and Lyn Duncan.

Carenne Gate has consulted with a criminal law expert who advised that while the suppression of documents under the Freedom of Information Act itself was not illegal, it is illegal to tamper with evidence and making a false official instrument to pervert the course of justice. The lawyer claimed that Miss Churches and Mrs Duncan would have signed a document stating no documents existed under the request. Such a document would have been an "official instrument" made by a "public officer".

It shows that despite being in serious trouble already, Lee Churches continues to break the law to protect herself and the Carenne KLAN.

Michael Auld's latest scam exposed

A number of concerned Carenne Special School staff have contacted Carenne Gate concerned about Michael Auld's plans to charge students or the school a fee to access the therapy farm at the Riding for the Disabled complex behind the school.

The therapy farm program, which many staff were told was being funded by RDA and Michael Auld was actually being funded by Carenne Special School, which the Snowden Review found was inappropriate. The issue follows claims that RDA has been charging the school $80 per student and claims that RDA received part of Carenne and Denison College's $3.7 million trade training centre funding due to Michael Auld being on both the RDA and TTC committees.

The program has been placed on hold while alternate sources of funding are investigated. Michael Auld told staff that participants may need to pay to access the program if it starts again which would of course be paid by either parents/carers or the school.

It is the latest in a string of scams by Mr Auld.

Simone Russell told whistleblower about misue of Police computer system

Carenne Special School whistleblower Karachi claims that she was told by Simone Russell, former administration manager of Carenne turned teacher's aide that her husband Scott, then sergeant of police at Portland had misused the COPS system for their own benefit.

Karachi says that when the Russells were looking at buying a house, Simone told her that she was lucky that Scott was a police officer because he could do address inquiries through the police computer system to see if the house had a known history or was in a bad area.

Karachi recalls Simone telling her about a house in West Bathurst, which she said had been used as a drug house.

Based on Karachi's claims, it would seem like Scott Russell breaches police policy in his use of the COPS system.

Orange school teacher grooms primary school children for sex

AN electronic trail of sexually explicit communication with students may lead to jail for a former teacher at an Orange primary school.
The 36-year-old teacher yesterday pleaded guilty to 12 charges including using the internet to groom a child for sexual activity, using an electronic service to menace, harass or offend and several child pornography offences.

He was committed to the Orange District Court for sentence later this year.

Neither the man nor the school he was employed at can be named, with Orange Local Court placing a non-publication order on any information that may identify the victims.

One victim, an 11-year-old boy, was communicating with the teacher via an internet messaging service on the evening of July 2 last year.

Read more

Staff claim DET investigation a fraud

Assistance being provided to Carenne by IT security experts and legal personnel from the Department of Education and Training is only a diversion intended to take the heat off a few key staff and set someone else up according to Carenne whistleblower "hatho". Hatho claims that Neil Moon has asked for evidence to be tampered with to show that the leaks are not coming from within Carenne.

Hatho alleges that Neil Moon was wanting to set an "enemy of the school" up to discredit them and was going to claim that someone had tampered with the school's security system and were using staff computer logins to access the documents.

Hatho told Carenne Gate that she was confident her identity wouldn't be found. "These people are just idiots, Neil is trying to get them to set someone else up so I am safe."

Capebase continues to defraud the SNTS

Following Craig and Michelle Graham being named and shamed on this blog for defrauding the SNTS in March it has been discovered by a Carenne Gate investigator that they continue to defraud the Department of Education and Training, reaping benefits for themselves and their employer, Capebase.

Following the March incident, hatho came forward and said that she knew that Mr Graham had claimed the full kilometres back to Blayney and that Mrs Graham had declared the full hours back to Blayney for work as a bus escort. Hatho alleged that Mr and Mrs Graham often over-declared from the department on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that she had been told by Mrs Graham that she had to see Centrelink every second Tuesday.

In April, Michelle Graham denied the allegations on this blog in this posting. She claimed -

"you have ALL your facts wrong.we do go home everyday and yeh you saw us at aldi and macas .so what ? ITS NONE OF your BUISNESS WHAT WE DO WHEN WE HAVE FINISHED THE RUN.my husband does not get paid by the kilometre ,yes the bus company does.but the bus company only claims what is used each day which is totally correct and none of your buisness once again.as for me i have never claimed any hours not owed to me and if we go after the bus run to do something like have a coffee or get some groceries before we head back to blayney ,that does not mean we are defrauding the department."

Our investigator can reveal that Mr and Mrs Graham parked their bus in the Bathurst RSL club carpark for most of yesterday. Mr and Mrs Graham were seen walking in William Street by Carenne staff at 11:00AM Photographs provided show that the vehicle was there at 1:50PM and not in Blayney as would have been expected if it returned there as Mrs Graham claims.

It is estimated that on each day that the Grahams do not return to Blayney but claim they do, the state government is being defrauded by $160 for the bus contractor and around $40 for the escort.

"I leaked Police information to Peter Harvey": Jake Rosenberg

Following the revelation on this blog that Brian Carter's complaint may have been a protected disclosure, long-time Carenne whistleblower, Jake Rosenberg has admitted to leaking information which she was told about Police matters to Peter Harvey. Rosenberg told Carenne Gate "I have done things I should not have done and they are going to have to come out before one of the bitches of Eastwick nail me."

In her confession to Carenne Gate, Jake Rosenberg claims that she told Peter Harvey about information she was given by Simone Russell. Rosenberg states that she was told by Russell that Brian Carter had been charged by police with something, which she told Mr Harvey. She claims that she was then asked by Harvey to get more information so that he could report it to the department's Employee Performance and Conduct unit.

Rosenberg then spoke to Russell who told her she had her husband, a member of NSW Police, Scott check with some friends in Bathurst who told him what Mr Carter had been charged with. Rosenberg said that Lee Churches was bitterly disappointed when Brian Carter was acquitted in court. Rosenberg recalls a conversation with Churches where she said -

"I was sure we had that curly haired poofter there, we will have to make sure we set him up for something else."

Jake Rosenberg provides report showing condition of shafted Carenne employee

Following yesterday's revelation that staff in the department's Bathurst District Office had corruptly interfered in the worker's compensation claims of department employees, Jake Rosenberg has provided a copy of an incident report she was given by Michael Auld to take to Prue Luffman.

Rosenberg claims she was also given an email which was previously posted on this blog which Mr Auld asked her to take to Mrs Luffman because it would show she was subject to complaints and it would force her to drop her complaints against Carenne.

Rosenberg claims the incident report proves the condition that Mrs Luffman was in due to constant bullying and harassment by Carenne employees. She claims that Mr Auld provided her with a plethora of documentation which Mr Auld had asked for her to deliver to Mrs Luffman in an effort to have her drop her worker's compensation claim.

Brian Carter's complaint was a protected disclosure

Over the past eighteen months, the NSW Department of Education and Training has refused to acknowledge Brian Carter's complaint about Carenne Special School as a protected disclosure, claiming that he was not an employee at the time of the complaint and therefore he was not entitled to protection.

In a letter obtained by Carenne Gate dated 14 May 2010, Jane Thorpe of the department's Employee Performance and Conduct unit informs Mr Carter that he is an employee as someone who is on the department's casual list and can therefore be investigated by the department. In the letter, Ms Thorpe advises that Mr Carter was an "employee" but not a "public official" as defined by the whistleblower legislation.

Carenne Gate has sought legal advice on Mr Carter's position and has been told that if Mr Carter is an "employee" which may be investigated then he is a "public official" under the whistleblower protection legislation.

We were directed to look at section 4 of the Protected Disclosures Act which says -

"public official" means a person employed under the Public Sector Management Act 1988 , an employee of a State owned corporation, a subsidiary of a State owned corporation or a local government authority or any other individual having public official functions or acting in a public official capacity, whose conduct and activities may be investigated by an investigating authority, and (without limitation and to avoid doubt), includes an individual in the service of the Crown or of a public authority, a member of the Police Service, a PIC officer or a PICI officer.

Under this definition Mr Carter would have been protected at the time of his complaint and therefore he is entitled to protection under whistleblower protection laws. This can't be taken away from him just because the NSW Department of Education and Training wishes it to.

Bathurst Staff Support Officer identified as corrupt

It comes as no surprise to readers of this blog that the NSW government is entrenched with corruption and cover-ups and it is probably even less of a surprise that staff in the Western Region of the Department of Education and Training are involved in corrupt activities.

nedkelly has implicated Bathurst Assistant Staff Support Officer Janette Crawford in supporting false worker's compensation claims and interfering in claims of those known to be against the KLAN.

nedkelly claims that a comment posted by an anonymous user was true in part. nedkelly claims that she was told by Lee Churches to call GIO and make a report that Lyn Duncan was faking stress leave arising from her being named and shamed on Sydney Indymedia because she was an alcoholic and that nedkelly had seen her drinking alcohol during school hours in her office. nedkelly says that Churches told her that this tip had come from the Staff Support Officer at district office.

She claims that she was told by Janette Crawford that she should refuse to be interviewed by GIO over Nathan Carter's stress claim as there were pending investigations involving the ICAC. nedkelly alleges that Ms Crawford told her "we don't look after whistleblowers here, he should suffer for what he has done." She also claims that she was told to tell anyone that asked that she had learned that Nathan Carter had started his own business and had no intention of returning to Carenne. nedkelly claims that she knew this was not correct but was told to "toe the line" or be dismissed.

nedkelly alleges that Janette Crawford had a duty to report and take action against Michael Auld after Ms Churches and he schemed up a plan to stop Nathan Carter from returning to Carenne. nedkelly was aware that Mr Auld had told Ms Crawford that he would "smack out" Nathan Carter if he returned to Carenne. She said that Mr Auld told her that Ms Crawford thought it was funny.

nedkelly also alleges that she was told by Janette Crawford to be prepared to lie about Prue Luffman's claim if she was asked to be interviewed and to say that she was faking being stressed and that at no time had anyone said anything to her about being in a sexual relationship with Peter Richards. When she questioned whether or not this was put in writing, Ms Crawford told her that any records showing that would be destroyed to protect the school.

Save Carenne also provided a response when contacted by Carenne Gate. She said that she was told that Janette Crawford had told Bev Masters not to pursue a worker's compensation claim because it would make the school bad and just to take sick leave for stress, she also claims that district office was supportive of two claims made by Simone Russell, one when she was sick with pneumonia and her step-son was being investigated and another this year when she took time away from the office because she couldn't do the job and also because she wanted to be at home with her daughter. According to Save Carenne, Mrs Russell told her that she was furious that GIO had rejected her worker's compensation claim and said "I deserve some sort of compensation from being put through hell and back in that place."

Did RDA cost Bathurst it's seating clinic?

With a number of Bathurst residents disgusted at the local health service's removal of a local wheelchair seating clinic on cost grounds, one local parent has laid the blame squarely at the local branch of the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) which has been implicated in the misuse of funding under the federal government's Trade Training Centre program.

The parent claims that she recalls RDA being given an amount in the vicinity of $200,000 by the local health service to relocate from its site at Eric Sargent Drive to its present location behind Carenne Special School. The parent, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear or reprisals told Carenne Gate that she remembers being told that RDA had approached Gerard Martin through Michael Auld to receive "ex-gratia compensation" for having to move from the health service's site in Eric Sargent Drive.

The parent told Carenne Gate that this $200,000 could have been better used to provide a seating clinic, which the health service claims will cost $300,000 to remove.

"Wouldn't you think Auld would have been happy getting an infinite lease on the land behind the school, no, he had to get money as well, that is two-thirds of what GWAHS is saying it will cost to relocate the clinic,"

"I'm just mortified that they can pay RDA to move, when they help very few people in the community, Jim helps almost 300 people at no cost. After reading this site I am horrified to see that RDA is charging Carenne $80 a student for a service they provide when they feel like it. It's horrendous."

The question is now why could the state government give RDA money to move and not pay to relocate its own clinic?

"Michael Auld should be charged": Gretel

New Carenne Special School whistleblower has come forward with stinging allegations that Michael Auld was involved in the bullying and harassment of Nathan Carter following Mr Auld believing that Brian or Nathan Carter had made a complaint about him to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Gretel claims that following Mr Auld being interviewed by Gary Bevan by the department's Serious Misconduct Unit on behalf of the ICAC he told her that he knew it was one of the two Carters and that he had been told by Peter Harvey to admit nothing during the interview as it would further harm the school's reputation. Gretel claims that Michael told her that Nathan Carter "had to go" and if she didn't do something about it he would. nedkelly has previously made similar allegations against Michael Auld.

Gretel alleges that prior to the July school holidays that she was sent an email by Michael Auld saying that he would not work alone with Nathan Carter over the school holidays because he didn't want anymore problems from him and that he knew it was Nathan Carter who had made the complaint about him to the ICAC.

RDA paid $80 per student, Auld interfered in staffing: Gretel

A new whistleblower from Carenne Special School known as "Gretel" has come forward claiming that the reason that so few students at Carenne take part in RDA is because the school must pay RDA for the students who take part in addition to providing Melinda Gavin as a coach.

Gretel claims that RDA charge $80 per student for students to attend Riding for the Disabled which the school pays for itself. The school then has to pay for relief staff for Melinda Gavin, at a cost of around $150 per day while she works at RDA and is paid by the Department of Education and Training.

Gretel claims that when Melinda was told she may have to work at RDA at their expense and take leave without pay from the department which would affect her leave and holiday pay entitlements she had Michael Auld complain about it and claim that it was "unfair". Gretel also claims that Mr Auld interfered in staffing, saying that Karina Molenkamp should be still given 2 days a week work because that is what he had promised her.

Jobs for the family continue at Carenne

Carenne Gate has learned that the nepotistic staffing practices which have been heavily criticised on this blog continue to be used at Carenne Special School in Bathurst. It is these staffing practices which we believe are in part responsible for the continued cover-ups at Carenne.

Recently, Carenne has employeed Carly Sewell, daughter of relief aide Sue Sewell and financial supporter and TAFE teacher Bill Sewell.

The Sewell family has been involved in Carenne for some time. Bill Sewell, former owner of a pet shop in Bathurst provided a great deal of financial and moral support to the school, which is known to engage in corrupt and deceptive fundraising practices, such as the bus appeal where a number of donors were clearly misled.

Sue Sewell's sister, Dianne Poole is employed by the department in a consultancy position at the Bathurst district office. This combined with the former financial support Bill gave the school give Sue preferential aide status at the school.

The close relationship between Carenne and the Sewell family was shown in Michael Auld's recent newsletter piece, where Auld wrote -

"Daniel is going very well Tafe in his Animal Care Course. Bill Sewell - who once owned Bill's Pet Paradise - is an excellent teacher and Daniel looks forward to his classes."

Staff claim that they have never seen such blatant favourtism towards a TAFE teacher and believe it shows exactly why Sue and Carly are working at Carenne.

Students miss out on RDA while aide takes holiday

Concerned parents have contacted Carenne Gate outraged that their children have been unable to access Riding for the Disabled for the past three weeks because Melinda Gavin has been on holidays.

Both Carenne Special School and RDA have been questioned by parents about why there can be no RDA program just because Mrs Gavin has decided to take holidays in the middle of the school term. One parent said "I asked why the program was so reliant on Mrs Gavin and was told that she is the only person who can run the program because nobody else is trained, it was just like when her child was sick a few years ago, everyone missed out because of it, it is so poorly organised it isn't funny,"

"You would have thought then that they would of worked on making sure they had alternative arrangements."

Another parent said "I am concerned about the level of control Michael Auld and Melinda Gavin have over RDA, it is just like another arm of the school, nobody is allowed in there, it's Melinda or nobody."

nedkelly told Carenne Gate "I don't know why they can't train Jasmine Ryan up to do the job, that would make sense. She was given the job of filling in for Gavin in Auld's class because she was a 'horsey' person, why can't she run RDA when Gavin takes one of her breaks?"

It is believed that on the days that Mrs Gavin is away from the school and working at RDA that she continues to be paid by the school who have to also arrange a relief aide.

Carenne Gate has learned that there will be no RDA program again next Thursday as Melinda Gavin is participating in the Gulgong Endurance Horse Ride.

It's about time staff such as Melinda Gavin take their responsibilities to the students of Carenne Special School seriously and put student needs before their own.

Site repaired

Following an attack by someone inside the NSW Department of Education and Training on Wednesday, the site has been repaired with no information lost.

Once again, omerta's attack had no lasting damage.

As we have seen for the past year both on this blog and Sydney Indymedia, carennetruth, identified as Lee Churches an assistant principal of Carenne Special School has peddled misinformation. She claimed in a comment on Wednesday that:

Yes the department has control of the site because Julie Brown was arrested today because she was running an illegal website.

nedkelly reports that it has been discussed at Carenne that the department was responsible for taking down the website and a number of key players expressed relief at the blog being destroyed.

Site attacked by "omerta" from DET computer

We have learned that the damage to the blog site was carried out by the usual attacker, "Omerta" this time using a computer on the NSW Department of Education and Training's network. It shows that the anonymous threat posted on Monday night that Michael Snowden's review claimed the department would work on taking the website down because it was affecting staff morale.

Blog attacked

Once again this blog has been attacked by deleting articles on the blog. Investigations are currently being carried out.