Ian Filer
Apologies, but I should have posted this prior to parents/care givers receiving yesterday’s Materials and Services charges for 2021.
On Monday night our Governing Council engaged in a lengthy debate regarding our proposed Materials and Services (M&S) charges for 2021. This was aided by feedback received from our community, including a letter expressing concern and feedback from Governing Council members and leadership staff. The reason we proposed the fee increase was to support our ambitious three year plan to ensure all of year four to seven students had access to a high quality iPad to be used by individual students. This can now be funded from unexpected income from Covid relief and funds returned from the STEM build.
Following our debate, a motion was passed that we keep our M&S charges for 2021 at the 2020 amount of $380 for all students, Foundation to year seven. That is, no change for next year. In doing so we are now required to revisit the process, forward a new watermarked M&S letter to all parents, invite members of our community to a specially convened Governing Council meeting to be held on Wednesday 18th of November, formalise the proposal and then conduct our poll. Our timeline is short but I anticipate that we will have everything finalised by week nine this term.
The decision of Governing Council to not increase the fees this year, despite our earlier communication, has been a really difficult one to make and many factors have had to be taken into account. Our Governing Council will need to revisit our iPad programme next year as additional funding will not be available.
Monday night’s Governing Council meeting was a great example of how your governing body listened carefully to community voice and made the compassionate and sensible decision, during a time of great challenges and stress, as a consequence of COVID-19. My thanks to our Governing Council.
Ian
Hi Ian,
Your message was very confusing to say the least…It is not very clear. Firstly you said “The reason we proposed the fee increase was to support our ambitious three year plan to ensure all of year four to seven students had access to a high quality iPad to be used by individual students. This can now be funded from unexpected income from Covid relief and funds returned from the STEM build.” (I take that to mean no fee increase and I pads are funded already)
And then you said…
“Our Governing Council will need to revisit our iPad programme next year as additional funding will not be available.” ???
Can you please provide clarification as the message you sent was contradictory.
Regards
Sarah Meyler
Sarah Meyler
Apologies for the confusion Sarah. The original fee increase was to help fund our IPad roll out programme for next year. However we were fortunate to receive unexpected funds from a STEM refund and Covid supplementations. We will use this money and money from our planned 2021 IT budget to fund next year’s roll out. My note regarding our Governing Council revisiting our IPad programme, refers to any possible M and S change for the 2022 year-not next year. Hope this clarifies your query.
Ian