Parents forced to pay $100 per year for RDA

A number of concerned parents have contacted Carenne Gate after being given a note telling them that they are required to pay $100 per year for their child to attend the riding for the disabled program at Carenne Special School this year.

Parents asked Carenne Gate if the school was still being forced by RDA to pay $80 per student per term in addition to the $100 per annum fee being imposed on parents. In the past, parents paid nothing for their children to attend the program, although a $15 per term fee was imposed on students who only attended the therapy farm after the Snowden review found that the school should not be funding RDA projects.

Following an investigation by Carenne Gate which found that other RDA centres charged participants anywhere from nothing to $35 per year, RDA President Nola Ramsay was contacted who refused to provide any explanation about why Bathurst charged almost three times more than any other RDA in NSW.

Issues at RDA in Bathurst have been a regular occurrence ever since Michael Auld became a member of its committee in 2007 according to a number of Carenne staff. RDA has been involved in a number of questionable activities including the payment of former President Mike Biddle for his son's services, parents being used to clean the premises, siphoning of Trade Training Centre funding to RDA, the program being overly dependent on Melinda Gavin, the failure of the committee to have proper insurance and ripping Carenne Special School off.