Parents may be called upon to keep class budgets afloat

According to information and documents received from Carenne Special School whistleblowers, a number of classes have used their budget for the year and now parents may be called upon to keep key school programs such as cooking afloat.

According to the information, Michael Auld, Peter Richards, Laurie Healey, Nadine Dwyer and Ros Luther have exhausted their class budget for this year, with another three months to go in the school year. According to an email between Helen Windsor, Carenne's new administrator and Neil Moon leaked to Carenne Gate last week several classes are close to or have exceeded their budget and parents may need to contribute money towards independent living schools programs for those classes if the programs are to continue until the end of the year.

According to one Carenne Saviour, a conversation took place between Mr Moon and Mrs Windsor last week where she told him that she was concerned about the amount of money Michael Auld had been putting down for work experience activities associated with the Riding for the Disabled Association.

Hatho told Carenne Gate that the problems were associated with Mrs Windsor not being creative enough -

"This write your class name on every receipt is rubbish, when Simone was SAM, if one class' budget was exceeded she would just allocate that to a class which wasn't and which had fewer costs, that way important programs can continue, she is just not being creative enough."

The comment by hatho indicates that under Mrs Russell's administration, much of the school's funding was being diverted away from where it should have been going. Instead of allowing teachers who routinely go over their budget to siphon funds from elsewhere they should be more careful of the public's money.

A saviour told Carenne Gate that Kelly Thompson had one of the best systems for classroom funds. "Kelly actually had the class deliver newspapers as part of both their PE and to receive money for classroom activities and reward activities. For other activities she would have the parents make a very small contribution which if not received would exclude the student from that activity like an ordinary school. Auld and Churches hated this because they said she was being too tough, but she claimed it taught the students to be responsible."

As we have seen far too often at Carenne, a few get a free ride and special treatment to the detriment of others.

Moon pledges to fix the "dildo issue"

Neil Moon, Carenne's principal who was at the Carenne Support fundraiser on Friday when two staff members presented a sex toy as their unusual item has pledged to staff that he will fix the "dildo issue" and make the problem go away.

A number of staff said they were shocked to see photographs of the event around the whiteboard in the staff room with the words "CONGRATULATIONS" written near them after the horrendous behaviour on the night.

At the staff meeting this afternoon, Mr Moon told staff that he has spoken to Peter Harvey about the issue and told him that he did not see a sex toy at the event. He told all other staff to say they saw and heard nothing about a dildo being present, as it had the potential to spark a large scale investigation.

According to a whistleblower at the meeting, Mr Moon told staff that they didn't need the stress of an allegation like this and he would ensure the "dildo issue" went away. It shows the lengths that the likes of Mr Moon will go to to ensure that the truth about what happens at Carenne is hidden.

The events of Friday night show just why Carenne needs this blog to expose the truth about what happens at Carenne.

Molenkamp, Cranston commit "sexual misconduct": SEA Snitch

Bathurst Schools Office whistleblower, "SEA Snitch" has spoken to Carenne Gate advising that a number of departmental rules were broken on Friday night at the controversial Dinner Dance where staff took a vibrator as an "unusual item" in the presence of a young lady and staff.

The whistleblower said that the most serious incident would involve the sex toy, which was bought to the function in the presence of a young person. SEA Snitch claims that the conduct of Karina Molenkamp and Angie Cranston in showing the sex toy and slapping each other with it is considered sexual misconduct and as such they have to stood down and subject to investigation.

"We already know that Peter doesn't take these seriously. There were allegations of reportable conduct made about Churches and Russell neglecting their own children and he covered those up," said SEA Snitch.

SEA Snitch also said that principal Neil Moon should have intervened and reported the incident under child protection guidelines.

SEA Snitch said -

"The fact that the youngest person there was 16 is still covered by the child protection guidelines and legislation. She is a young person and their behaviour is sexual misconduct. If Moon doesn't report it then he should also be sacked for covering it up."

SEA Snitch said that the use of alcohol while a young person was disallowed under the code of conduct as far as they are aware. SEA Snitch lays the blame fairly at Carenne Support who organised the event and the school executive, who should have known better in their assessment.

"The code of conduct is clear, there is to be no alcohol at school functions where young people, children or students are present. Obviously this wasn't followed in this case," complained SEA Snitch.

In addition to charges of sexual misconduct and breaching the code of conduct through the use of alcohol, SEA Snitch says that the conduct of those who bought the vibrator to the function could amount to sexual harassment, which is illegal in NSW and something which is prohibited by the code of conduct.

SEA Snitch said that they were also concerned about the negative impact the behaviour of staff will have on the school and the wider public education system in NSW.

Sex toy features at Dinner Dance, event a disgrace say attendees

Last night's Dinner Dance for Carenne Support Limited, the organisation central to the Carenne Gate affair was a complete disgrace according to a number of attendees. The Dinner Dance was held at the Bathurst RSL Club to raise funding for a sensory wall at the school. Attendee and Carenne Special School whistleblower nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she was shocked at the conduct of some of her colleagues and at Paul Knight's speech where he took aim at whistleblowers.

Paul Knight's speech mentioned that the school had been engulfed by problems for the last two years and that the only way for Carenne Special School and Carenne Support to survive was to "stick together". Attendees said that it was obvious that Mr Knight was having a shot at whistleblowers who are attempting to clean up Carenne Support and Carenne Special School.

According to nedkelly's estimates only around 80 people were in attendance and of those only two were parents not employed by or associated with Carenne Support or the school. "It was pretty bad considering that they told us that there would be at least 150 people there," Ned told Carenne Gate.

"It just shows how much support the school has lost, the school is really unpopular in the Bathurst community now, people are really over it all."

Another attendee told Carenne Gate that he wasn't surprised by the lack of interest and found it comical that after all the promotion of the event that hardly anybody showed up. The attendee said that it was apparent that the school no longer had the support they once had and that the bus debacle had made the public think twice about giving any money to Carenne Special School or Carenne Support.

"How do you know the money is going to Carenne for what they say. The whole community thought the buses were for the school, nobody told them that they weren't to be owned by the school but an organisation attached to the school which uses them to earn a huge profit," said the attendee.

Another attendee said she was surprised by the absence of Carenne fan Gerard Martin. "Gerard continues to support the rorts at Carenne yet didn't even show up for a supposed charity event for the school."

"I wonder if people know that because of Carenne Support using the buses for themselves that students in wheelchairs can't go on overnight excursions" he said.

All of the attendees who sent complaints to Carenne Gate complained about the conduct of staff at the charity event. One attendee said "how we as staff behave in public is how the school is perceived by the public, when you carry on like they did last night it sends a negative message to the public about the school."

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that Carenne Support employee Mary Housler, known for attacking people on this blog was terribly drunk and had to be told not to stand on tables and "sexually harassing" a number of attendees including Paul Knight and Geoff Salmon. Nedkelly claims that she was "overly friendly" with Geoff Salmon who appeared very uncomfortable with Mrs Housler's advances.

According to one attendee, he was completely shocked when Karina Molenkamp and Angie Cranston showed the secret item they had bought to the event. "I'm not easily shocked but I couldn't believe it when they pulled out a vibrator, it was so inappropriate. How the department can let this happen is just beyond me, it has to be some sort of serious misconduct to take a sex toy to a school event at a place like the RSL" said the male complainant. Another attendee commented that Mrs Molenkamp and Mrs Cranston's behaviour was unacceptable and that it was only because they shared a table with Lee Churches, Margaret Rowe and Kym Tattersall that they got away with it. "If it had been anyone else, Neil Moon would have thrown them out."

Comments were also made about staff absences from the night. Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she couldn't believe that Anne Baskerville, one of the people calling for a sensory wall didn't show up. Another attendee commented about Michael Auld breezing in and out of the event. "He might as well not have came along," said the attendee.

According to Carenne Support, they have raised enough money for the sensory wall they want for the school.

Saviours concerned about Jindabyne excursion arrangements, claim corrupt staff allocation made by Moon

A number of Carenne Special School staff are concerned about the supervision arrangements for the planned excursion to Jindabyne later in the week. According to staff, Peter Richards is not medically fit to supervise students so far from home and Angela Cranston is someone who is known to neglect her duties as an aide.

One of the Carenne Saviours told Carenne Gate -
"I am really concerned for both Peter and the kids, Peter has been having frequent epileptic seizures of late and it worries me that he will be responsible for children on this excursion. Another thing that worries me is if he drives and has a fit, even though he has been having fits at least twice a week and he still drives. What if he has a fit while driving on the highway, what about the students on the bus."

Another Carenne whistleblower told Carenne Gate that Angela Cranston was only selected to go on the excursion because she took an extra week's holiday in June for which she was unpaid and that the excursion would entitle her to extra pay which would cover the excursion. The whistleblower said "it's another case of Neil Moon looking after his friends, he couldn't care less about anyone else, he looks after Angie."

The whistleblower also claimed that Angela Cranston's conduct earlier this year when she neglected her duties as an aide and sent a group of students unsupervised back to the school after a teacher was injured while delivering circulars showed she was incapable of providing adequate supervision. "Just think if she leaves kids unsupervised in Jindabyne, it's frightening. She couldn't care less about students, she just wants the money."

Another whistleblower said "This is a woman who thinks its acceptable to supply a child with cigarettes, a child who was just 8 at the time. How can this woman, a child abuser be trusted on an excursion?"

Churches uses truancy officer for Carenne Support's benefit, Porter threatens sacked bus driver

According to Carenne Special School whistleblower Jake Rosenberg, Carenne Support CEO and therapy co-ordinator Christine Porter and Carenne Special School assistant principal and Carenne Support Director Lee Churches came up with a plan to bully a parent using the district truancy officer.

Rosenberg claims to have overheard a conversation last week where Porter said Carenne Support's profits had been lower as a result of some parents on its highly profitable Lithgow bus run keeping their children home. According to Rosenberg the only student on the run who regularly attended had been withdrawn from the school.

Churches was heard telling Porter that she would make sure the student was re-enrolled by "getting the truancy officer" on to the parents.

Churches is alleged to have told Porter that the other two students from the Lithgow area couldn't be counted on to maintain the $130,000 earned by the run.

During the discussion Rosenberg heard Mrs Porter say she would attack former Carenne bus driver Jenny O'Neill out if her salary was reduced to cover the shortfall.

It shows that profit comes before students with Carenne Support.

Inside the Klan: Churches and Housler wanted Jenny O'Neill gone

Former klansmen "nedkelly" has provided further insight into the operation of the group known as the KLAN which controls Carenne Special School in Bathurst. This time, nedkelly has spoken to Carenne Gate about how Lee Churches and Mary Housler wanted bus driver Jenny O'Neill dismissed from her job because she had made complaints about people.

Nedkelly claims that plans had been on foot to dismiss Mrs O'Neill as early as June 2009, but Ms Churches was concerned about how it would look with two bus drivers dismissed in the space of six months.

"Lee told me around June that she wanted Jenny gone because she was a snitch. She said that she had complained about the wrong people and we would have to come up with a plan to have her dismissed but it would need to be a long-term plan because two dismissals in a short period of time would be suspicious," said nedkelly.

She said at the end of 2009, Ms Churches began telling members of the KLAN to complain about Mrs O'Neill being on the blog. When this site was created in November 2009, Ms Churches printed fliers off using the school printer and gave them to Lucy Thornton to pass around to staff so they were aware of the new site.

"Lee printed off fliers using the school's printer and had them passed out by Lucy on the condition that when Lucy was caught out she would say Jenny told her about the new site, Lee said that this would end support for Jenny with Christine Porter who had been one of her supporters," said nedkelly.

Nedkelly says that when Carenne Support had a union representative turn up at a meeting with Mrs O'Neill they became cautious about sacking her. She said that Ms Churches would turn to hassling Jenny away from work.

According to nedkelly, earlier this year Ms Churches and Mary Housler became upset about complaints that Mrs O'Neill had made about Geoff Salmon and Ms Churches. "Lee then said we had to make sure that she went after that, she told us we got rid of two snitches we can get rid of her."

Mrs Housler had a disliking for Mrs O'Neill because she had refused to sign blank pay claims according to nedkelly. Mrs Housler was often heard by nedkelly in the officer rubbishing Mrs O'Neill to Simone Russell.

Nedkelly says a series of complaints were made about Mrs O'Neill but the board of Carenne Support were cautious of dismissing her. Nedkelly says that Christine Porter was asked to step down from her role as bus supervisor (which she took on as part of her role as CEO) so that Mrs Housler's friend Dave Graham could take the job.

"As always happens at Carenne, the job was already fixed up before the job was even advertised. Dave Graham was a friend of Housler's and the interview was just to look as though it was a genuine redundancy, it wasn't."

Nedkelly's tale shows that the KLAN who operate Carenne Special School will not tolerate anyone who dares to speak the truth about Carenne.

Inside the Klan: Nedkelly exposes Lee Churches' plan to ruin whistleblower

Carenne Special School whistleblower "nedkelly" has told Carenne Gate that Lee Churches told her of complaints made about her by dismissed whistleblower Brian Carter and masterminded the plot against him. She claimed it was just one of a series of dirty tricks pulled by the klan.

"nedkelly" claims that she was warned by Miss Churches that Mr Carter was blaming her for his dismissal due to complaints made about him by her.

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate -
"Before he was sacked, I was told to make complaints about Brian Carter by Lee and Michael, they wanted him gone because he knew about many of the scams and child abuse going on."

"The quickest way to discredit him was to have him sacked. Lee told me I would be one of the first to go down and I panicked."

Nedkelly says that when her and another Klansmen's complaints went nowhere they changed tact.

"By that stage Michael wanted Nathan Carter out of the way too. Nathan had reported him for something and Michael said he had to go. Anyway, the main target was Carter so we bribed Terry. We threatened for him to sack Carter or we would expose his wrongdoing. This was entirely Lee's idea."

It is claimed that outgoing principal took the bait and eventually sacked Mr Carter. When Mr Carter protested and said he knew of the group who underlaid his dismissal, Mr Mahony allegedly told assistant principal and fellow Carenne Support director Lee Churches who warned nedkelly and others about Mr Carter's complaint.

"Lee told us to have someone make mischief first day back so that Carter looked bad to the new principal. She knew he would be blamed."

Nedkelly then claims that her and a number of others approached Lyn Duncan at the insistence of Ms Churches claiming they were concerned about their jobs following Mr Carter's claim that they had caused his dismissal.

After this, Nedkelly claims to have written anonymous letters to the school and School Education Director Peter Harvey at the direction of Lee Churches.

"I would write these letters defaming myself and the rest of the klan because Lee said it would look like Carter was doing it, Lyn fell for it, " said nedkelly.

Carenne staff directed not to contribute to this blog

In a letter given to Carenne Special School staff last week, Bathurst's School Education Director, Peter Harvey directed that all DET staff are not to contribute to this blog or any form of electronic media.

The letter alleges that a large volume of material has been posted to this blog about individual staff, students and parents of Carenne School with some of it being distorted or misconceived. This would indicate that the department believes a lot of this blog's contents to be true.

In the letter, Mr Harvey addressed concerns staff have publicly aired about being left to fight for themselves by the department, claiming the meeting on the 19th of July where Patrick Quinn told Carenne staff that the leaks were coming from inside the school, despite protests from Margaret Rowe and claims by Janelle Kemp that parents were responsible for the leaks.

Mr Harvey told staff in his letter that this blog is not the appropriate venue to make complaints, despite claims by the Carenne Saviours that their complaints to the principal and even Mr Harvey himself had been largely ignored.

DET ignored its duty of care over allegations against Churches: SEA Snitch

SEA Snitch, a whistleblower in the department's district office in Bathurst, from where School Education Director Peter Harvey is based claims that the department deliberately neglected its duty of care surrounding allegations made against Lee Churches.

SEA Snitch claims that towards the middle of 2009 a letter was received by Peter Harvey with photographs of Drew Churches and another young male drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes at the Churches family home and engaging in high-risk activities such as showing off on an abandoned building in Bathurst. SEA Snitch claims these are similar to the ones leaked to Sydney Indymedia by a Carenne Special School staff member in October last year. SEA Snitch says that the photographs were date stamped 2008, at which time Drew would have been just 15.

SEA Snitch told Carenne Gate that the department had a duty to investigate Lee for child abuse and neglect even though the allegations involved her own son. He claims that Lynette Duncan was also aware of the allegations and deliberately hid them from the Employee Performance and Conduct division of the department.

SEA Snitch said:

"What should have happened is that Lee should have been stood down pending investigation, the investigation would have been swift given the photographic evidence and she should have then been sacked. It shows that there is a history of child neglect even with her own son and she is unfit to teach."

SEA Snitch alleges that Ms Churches has received special treatment from Peter Harvey and Carole McDiarmid who are protecting her. He also claims that both are aware that she is "carennetruth" and a plethora of other aliases on this blog.

Michael Auld wasting school resources: nedkelly

With Neil Moon telling his staff to reduce their use of the school's colour photocopier due to high costs, former klansmen turned whistleblower nedkelly claims that this misuse can be put down to a minority of staff not the majority.

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she is "fed up" with being leered at by school administrator Helen Windsor and questioned when she uses the colour copier/printer to make resources for her class. Nedkelly said she probably makes no more than 20 colour prints per week but she is made to feel bad for doing so, despite the resources needing to be in colour.

Nedkelly said -

"It really pisses me off being treated like some sort of criminal because I use the colour copier on occasion, a little misuse comes during school hours but most of it is after hours, this abuse is costing the school money which impacts on the school's programs."

Nedkelly went on to lay the blame with a number of Carenne staff. She claimed that she had often seen Michael Auld printing colour materials for the Riding for the Disabled Association and St Vincent de Paul using the colour copier. She also claimed that Auld asked for the security system to be modified so staff could enter the photocopying room after hours and over school holidays, something verified in part by meeting minutes obtained by Carenne Gate in Term 2.

"I have seen Auld print hundreds of pages at a time, all related to RDA. When I complained to Neil about it, I was told to mind my own business," said nedkelly.

nedkelly also says that the setup of some computers is to blame. She said that some of the new computers received by the school and set up by Michael Auld had the colour printer set as default. She claimed that most staff are so technically illiterate that they are unable to change the printer when printing and most students would make the same mistake when printing. Nedkelly told us -
"It shows the complete incompetence of Michael Auld, he has no idea what he is doing, he is a complete f--- up."

nedkelly went on to allege that Melinda Gavin, Janelle Kemp, Paula Hundy and Angela Cranston all used the colour printer to print personal colour photographs.

Parent speaks out about treatment of her ADHD suffering son at another Bathurst School

In circumstances sounding similar to the debacle at Carenne Special School, a parent of a student at Bathurst West Public School has contacted Carenne Gate to complain about the treatment of her ADHD suffering son by the school's staff and principal Toni MacDonald.

The parent claims that she was told sometime ago that her son would have to be medicated as the school did not have the resources to deal with them in an effective manner by teacher Debbie Barratt. The mother said that she then spoke to her child's pediatrician who told her that her son could be put on the drug Ritalin but advised against it as his ADHD was mild.

When the parent told Mrs Barratt this, she said that unless he was medicated he wouldn't be allowed to come to school. The mother, concerned about her son then asked the doctor to provide her with the medication.

After seeing a deterioration in her son's condition, the mother then went back to the pediatrician who suggested that the student be taken off the medication. The parent told Mrs Barratt the plan and she said she wasn't comfortable with it but would comply with the request.

"Even though she said she agreed, Mrs Barratt and Mrs MacDonald kept giving him the medication, I don't know where they got it from because I wasn't sending any with my son. They must have taken it from another student and given it to my son," the upset mother told Carenne Gate.

The mother then spoke to Mrs Barratt and told her that she had found out they were still giving her son Ritalin, even though they were told he was being taken off it. The student's mother was told that principal Toni MacDonald had to approve for the student to be taken off the medication. When the parent spoke to Mrs MacDonald she was told that if her son was taken off Ritalin that he would not be able to attend the school for two weeks and if he turned up, she would send him home.

"How can these people tell me what to do with my child? How can they tell me that he has to be on medication when his doctor doesn't agree? When did they go to medical school?" the mother asked.

It would appear that staff in the Western Region of DET believe they know better than doctors and parents and will continue to threaten parents to force them to do what they want.