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.