LSLD more like LSD to Carenne

Barry O'Farrell's highly supported Local Schools Local Decisions (LSLD) program, which aims to give principals more control over staffing and school finance will be result in further issues at the maligned Carenne Special School in Bathurst according to staff.

Carenne Gate has been supplied with meeting minutes discussing what to do when the program begins to be implemented on Day 1 of Term 2. Under the program, Neil Moon will be able to make purchases under $5,000 from his choice of supplier. According to the meeting minutes, a number of people associated with Carenne staff will be rewarded:

• Stephen Smith will be given building work despite being a director of Carenne Support,
• Avairs Klavins will be given electrician work as his wife is an employee at the school,
• Christine Porter will be paid for upto 25% of speech therapy services at the school, with the remainder to be paid by Carenne Support,
• Joe Mancia will become the school's supplier of computers and maintain the school's computer system, Mancia is a close friend of Michael Auld and Lee Churches,
• RDA will receive payment directly from the school for the therapy farm and horse riding programs.
  

Moon has also discussed a plan to pay hire fees for buses used by the school belonging to Carenne Support with the school executive .

Nedkelly told Carenne Gate that staff were already discussing how to get their friends into jobs and how to make sure friends and family benefited from the new supply arrangements. She said the arrangements were a return to the "early days of Terry Mahony's principalship."

"As usual that fuckwit Michael Auld is involved in deciding who should get the task of supplying things to the school. He is a corrupt bastard and leads Neil Moon around by the nose,"

"I don't care, if this fucking shit goes on, I will be making a complaint to ICAC. I'm over these cunts dragging the school's name through the mud," said Ned Kelly.

It shows that Neil Moon is an ineffective leader who can be easily corrupted by staff at the school.

Carenne Support fails to make financials transparent

The corrupt organisation at the centre of the Carenne Gate Affair, Carenne Support Limited has failed to lodge its annual financial reports with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission this year. It had until October 30 to do so.

Despite only being required to if requested by ASIC or 5% of its members, in the past, Carenne Support has lodged its financial reports with the regulatory body. To stop lodging its reports, Carenne Support looks as though it is trying to hide something and should not be trusted by the general public.

It has already been publicised that key people associated with the charity are unsuitable, with Christine Porter accused of defrauding ADHC and neglecting students, Geoff Salmon running his own company into massive debt and attempting to carjack a Carenne protester, Paul Knight defrauding people on eBay and Terry Mahony telling the Bathurst community that the two buses being purchased were for the school.

Any person considering making a donation to the organisation should be careful as it obviously has something to hide and is not being open and transparent in its operation.

The organisation is not the first charity associated with Carenne to change its practices to avoid scrutiny, with the Bathurst Riding for the Disabled Association changing its structure to avoid transparency.

It's time that the authorities look into the plethora of issues surrounding Carenne Support.

The truth about Carenne funding

Following an article in the Western Advocate yesterday about Carenne receiving the third highest amount of funding in Bathurst per student, I took a look at the Myschool website myself.

While Myschool reports Carenne receives a whopping $36,148 per student the extra costs associated with the school are not included.

These include the transportation of students to the school under the Special Needs Transport Service and the funding previously given to Carenne Support for therapy.

If these were factored in, the amount of funding associated with Carenne would be far higher. I can remember having a discussion with a Carenne Gate whistleblower sometime ago where she told me that there was a bus transporting one student around 80 Km per day one way. Comments on this blog indicate that SNTS operators are paid around $2 per Km so this would add up to over $128,000 per year. Then there are a number of other bus runs which are also funded using the same formula.

With the amount of money involved at Carenne, the school executive needs to be held more accountable for how its spent and for its shady deals with organisations such as RDA.

Carenne's illegal dumping of rubbish affects villagers

A resident of the village of Rockley, South of Bathurst has contacted Carenne Gate to report the illegal dumping of rubbish from Carenne Special School at the Rockley Waste Transfer Station. The resident claims that Carenne has been dumping rubbish at the site for sometime and avoids scrutiny by the council by going to the tip when it is closed through a hole cut in the fence by a Carenne employee.

The resident, who came across the Carenne Gate blog when doing a websearch for Carenne complains that for the last year, increasing amounts of rubbish have been dumped at Rockley by the school's groundsman Peter Taylor.

"At the moment there are cardboard boxes, computer equipment and building waste that Peter Taylor has dumped there,"

"They are so stupid that they put computer stuff and boxes in there with Carenne School still written on them, the tip is only to be used by local residents not by a school in Bathurst,"

"You can go out there some days and there will be half a steel bin full of Carenne School's rubbish, it is really starting to affect those of us who live in the village as it limits what and when we can dump, it's only open two days a week and when they fill it up before Saturday we have no way to dump anything."

"There are recycling bins there for cardboard but Carenne is too lazy to use that and to make matters worse, Peter Taylor is dumping rubbish when the tip is closed. A local saw him dumping a full ute load of stuff there on Friday even though the tip is only open on Wednesday and Saturday, he knows the tip is manned when it is open and knows he isn't allowed to dump Carenne's rubbish here,"

"There is a hole in the side fence that he cut so he can drive in and out," said the Rockley Resident.

The Rockley Resident claims that Carenne would be dumping rubbish at Rockley as it is free for residents unlike the Bathurst Waste Management Centre which charges to dump rubbish.

"Bathurst charge $50 a tonne from memory to dump rubbish, Peter Taylor can dump it at Rockley on the way home for free."

When Carenne Gate asked nedkelly about the arrangements, she claimed that for years the school had been dumping rubbish illegally. "I know of Michael Auld dumping some at Wattle Flat at the tip there and I know of Simone Russell dumping rubbish at Portland when she lived there. When Peter Taylor has more than one load of rubbish, he usually dumps it on the side of the road somewhere,"

"Neil Moon is very supportive of dumping rubbish at Rockley because it saves the school money and because people from Bathurst who might have given the school things won't find what has been wrecked or wasted out at Rockley,"

"Neil Moon says its OK because Peter lives out there, there is nothing wrong with it," said nedkelly.

According to Bathurst Regional Council, which runs the station at Rockley, to use the tip the user must own a property within the rural area.

It once again shows the complete disregard that Carenne Special School management has for other people's property, for the environment and for council rules.

Carenne Support Director's own company in liquidation

Carenne Gate has learned that the man who admitted to assaulting and attempting to carjack a whistleblower and protester but was acquitted of charges, Geoff Salmon's own company Salmon and Speck Pty Ltd has been placed in external administration as it is insolvent.

Mr Salmon's company owes over $2,000,000 to the National Australia Bank and an amount of over over $1,000,000 to Kitvale Pty Ltd and Ashphalt Haulage Pty Ltd, despite its assets only being valued at a maximum of $500,000.

The company owes amounts in excess of $100,000 to Brayson Forest, GM Manegazzo and Co, Murphy's Produce, Secco Denis & Giuanni and West J Labour Hire.

Salmon himself claims he is owed $450,000 by the company with a further $117,000 claimed to be owed to Mr Salmon and his wife Gillian jointly.

As of November, Salmon's company has only paid $135,000 of its debts.

Questions have been asked on this blog about what Peter Keogh is suing Salmon and his business partner Peter Speck for in the Bathurst Local Court. Carenne Gate can reveal that after inspecting documents that he is suing for an amount in excess of $15,000 owed to him by Salmon and Speck.

If Mr Salmon is unable to run a company such as this profitably, how can the Bathurst community which are being asked to donate to Carenne Support have faith that Carenne Support will be properly ran?

Carenne Support now earning $150,000 a year, bank balance shrunk

In July, Carenne Gate asked why the Department of Education and Training was representing a contractor with $95,000 in the bank. Carenne Gate can now report that in just a year, Carenne Support's bank balance shrunk by around $23,000.

According to Carenne Support's financial documents for the year to 30 June 2010, Carenne Support's receipts rose by around $15,000 to $150,866. Despite this amount incoming, Carenne Support's expenses also rose by $35,000.

Carenne Support also spent far less on "plant and equipment" than in 2009.

Its bank balance for the financial year shrunk by $23,000 to $74,766, the lowest it has been for the past three financial years.

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.