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.

Escort rules unfair: Operator

A bus operator under the troublesome Assisted School Travel Program has spoken out about the new escort arrangements introduced as part of the changes for 2012, calling them unfair.

Under the previous system, bus operators were paid from the time they collected the first department approved passenger - which could be a student or escort until they dropped off the last passenger. This allowed for longer runs to be paid exorbitant amounts, while unescorted runs only got paid from the first student to the last student.

Under the new system, bus operators are paid a 15% bonus for having an escort, with the pay being determined from the first student picked up to the last student dropped off. They are no longer paid for the time an escort is on the bus.

One operator told Carenne Gate they considered the changes unfair.

"We have a 300 kilometre a day run, that we used to be paid the whole amount for. Now we are paid for 175 kilometres a day, with each kilometre paid far less than before," said the operator.

"If it keeps going, we will just stop our bus runs and find something else to do. It's no longer viable."

A source in the Assisted School Travel Unit told Carenne Gate that she believed the tender process and the new rates were bought in to stop rorting. "You can not believe how complicated the old system was, and how easily you could rort it," said the whistleblower.

"The new system was supposed to simplify how everything worked and stop the rorts."

Another departmental official told Carenne Gate that the new system was bought in as a recommendation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

"The ICAC received a number of complaints involving the former special student transport and looked into how it was ran. They found it was poorly ran and was open to corruption and favourtism,"

"You would have rouge operators such as one in this area which would put down more kilometres than they were traveling and who were getting in some cases double what some of the others were getting,"

"The ICAC said it was befit with massive issues," said the official.

Once again, the NSW Department of Education and Communities has failed a key program for disabled students in the state.

ASTU officer George Kalinin identified as corrupt

Following Libertarian's expos'e of Capebase Pty Ltd and its close relationship with an officer of the Assisted School Travel Unit (ASTU) known as George, Carenne Gate was flooded with details about the corrupt officer.

Carenne Gate can reveal that George Kalinin, a senior transport officer at the ASTU has been heavily involved in rorts surrounding the Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) for years.

One such rort is a system of mates rates for particular bus operators, hand selected by Kalnin himself. These rates mates were referred to as the department standard rate. The department standard rate in 2011 for a bus such as those used by Carenne Support and Capebase was $3.12 per kilometre, with a daily minimum of 100 kilometres (or $312 per day). Preferred operators such as Carenne Support, Capebase and TRAILS were paid the standard rate while other operators were not even told of its existence.

Kalinin is heavily involved in the allocation of runs at the ASTU and has rewarded his mates with lucrative runs, despite their history of major issues.

Kalinin was also known to bully drivers and operators, telling them if they complained about the system they would lose their run and it would be allocated to another operator. These re-allocations were ordinarily made to Capebase or other operators paid according to the department standard rate.

Kalinin has threatened drivers and operators who reported safety issues with both vehicles and individual students. Kalinin told these people making complaints to mind their own business and if they pushed the issue they were warned that there would be serious consequences.

Kalinin has also bullied parents, telling them if they complained too much he would just end their eligibility for transport and they would have to take their own children to school.

Numerous complaints about Kalinin have been made to both Gail Vasic (former ASTU manager) and Catherine Naismith (current ASTU manager) with no action being taken. His corrupt activities at the ASTU have been reported to politicians on both sides of the political divide and has been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, yet no action has been taken against him.

George Kalinin is yet another officer at the ASTU that should be in the dole queue, instead of looking after his corrupt mates.

Harvey, Simone ordered ICAC coverup

A number of sources both inside Carenne Special School and at the Bathurst District Schools Office have claimed that the Department of Education and Training knew of the Independent Commission Against Corruption's investigation into Carenne Special School prior to it raiding the school in early July.

One source claims that staff were interviewed prior to the school being raided, giving them a "heads up" on what was going to happen.

Staff allege that at the direction of Peter Harvey, Bathurst's School Education Director and Tony Simone, Information Technology Operations Manager both told staff that key evidence at the school was to be destroyed prior to the ICAC taking further action.

Whistleblowers claim that some computers at the school containing evidence went missing prior to the ICAC raid and were taken to Melinda Gavin's property at Caloola while others were wiped of information by DET IT support staff. The student laptops which were kept in the storeroom were removed, with staff told to tell the ICAC the school never received them if asked.

Incriminating emails were deleted by IT staff, with logs also changed to show that they were never sent. Documents detailing complaints of child abuse were also destroyed.

Documents providing evidence of corruption involving Carenne Support and the Riding for the Disabled Association were destroyed using the school's paper shredder and then taken to Wattle Flat, placed in a 44 gallon drum and burned.

It shows the lengths the DET will go to to cover up the corruption and abuse at Carenne Special School.

Carenne raided a month ago

The maligned Carenne Special School in Bathurst, where there have been complaints of child abuse and corruption was raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption over the school holidays. According to sources at the local school's office and staff questioned by the ICAC, computers and documents were seized in the raid.

The raid is a slap in the face for Neil Moon and Peter Harvey who have claimed the concerns at Carenne have been fabricated by disgruntled ex-employees. Whistleblower deepthroat told Carenne Gate -
"This has been a long time coming, the KLAN has been influencing Carenne for far too long. They have done some terrible things not only to students but also to other staff including myself."

According to sources at the local school's office, Peter Harvey was asked to stand particular staff down pending investigation but refused to do so. He also asked Grant Hatch to ensure the media did not report on the raid, as it would be damaging to the school's reputation.

Carenne Gate did not report on the raid when it first learned of it, as it did not wish to jeopardise any investigation into the abuse and corruption going on at Carenne.

"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.