11 December 2006

School funding arse-up

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has got an interesting story on the warfare surrounding school closures. Now the Federales, lead by culture warrior Julie Bishop, are asking uncomfortable questions about Federal funding to the vast number of schools Messrs Barr and Stanhope propose to close.

The Commonwealth is, reasonably enough, pointing out that the funding is not portable and are asking for their money back.

Until the actual school closures are announced this Wednesday we’re all in the dark as to exactly what’s going to happen. Brilliant planning again. The year’s over and the city doesn’t know what’s going to happen to a third of its schools for next year.

UPDATED: emd sent in the following story which I’ve appended here:

Two more sleeps til we know what schools are closing

Wednesday is the day the ACT Government is expected to announce the final decision on school closures.

Up for consideration are 22 pre-schools, 15 primary schools, Kambah High School, and Dickson College that the Government proposed to close over the next two years in their Towards 2020 plan.

According to the Canberra Times, there are rumours that Dickson College may be saved, and Copland College closed instead (once the new mega-super-giant-school opens).

There’s also a story on the Federal Government rightfully making complaints about the waste of federal funding from grants given to schools that are proposed for closure.

If you go to the ABC 666 website, they’re asking for people to let them know where to find them if they were involved in trying to save schools. Don’t remember where they said to submit your info though, there’s lots of places you can do it on that site…

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Anyone heard anything yet?????

Today is D-Day and my work has decided to put me on a class that already has a teacher as they think having classes up until 1:30pm means I’m being slack.

I’m thinking of blaming my arm and going to the CTL anyway.

Yes I’m evil.

CTL = Centre for Teaching and Learning (at Stirling)

Sorry, I’m use to calling it the CTL.

I’ll arrange to leave early – no classes tomorrow afternoon – but something always comes up at work. I’ll let you all know if I got there 🙂

Yes, it does seem to be being quite difficult to find out exactly when information will be able to be released. No one at my work seems to be able to find out formally what you mentioned about the principals’ meeting.

And yes, Nyssa, we’d love to have some kind of RA coverage of the events (and what do you mean by CTL?).

Email pics to johnboy@the-riotact.com on account of he’ll be able to do stuff faster than me tomorrow.

JB and Kerces, if I can get to the CTL and take photos etc, can I e-mail them to you?

It’s still a joke. They already know (today) so why the cloak and dagger?

I’d like to know where I’ll be working next year….

There is a media “blackout” until 2:30pm – which is directly after the CPS and other stake-holders have been told.

Kerces, I’ve heard that there is a media “blackout” on this until 2:30pmish. Have you heard that?

Apparently there are NO leaks at all. Even my sources are being kept in the dark.

I’m off around 2pm. I’m tempted to go to the CTL and see what I can “see” and maybe take some pics.

However, that is, if my current employer doesn’t mind me going.

ooo that’s squirmy news…

I can’t wait to see how the hedgehog and co. squirms away from that little agreement.

After making the 11th hour discovery that all 81 preschools in Canberra are actually estabished and operated as a Joint-Venture – based upon a Ministerial Agreement dated the 28th of October 1944 and still in effect witht he establishment of Amaroo preschool in 2003. The CPS shared this news with the Government and the DET – providing them with copies of the original agreement. This discovery places the fate of Preschools into contract law and outside of the Education Act (2004). The CPS president and Executive Officer were invited by the minister to hear the outcome of the Toward 2020 proposal – BEFORE then press corp. However, as I read here they are being told after the Press Corp – after Principals – after virtually everyone. I would have expected that joint owners of the Preschool would have been before the Principals.
On a brighter note, the DET listened to the CPS request to make child-care available for the Presidents of the Preschool Parent Associations – as these VOLUNTEER joint OWNERS of the Preschools under threat are ALL parents of young children who sacrifice enormous amounts of time, money and energy to keep ALL preschools OPERATING as the community hubs that they are. Oh, by the way the CPS will be told the news at 2:15pm, Preschool Presidents and Teachers will be told at 2:30pm. All the announcements are being made at the Centre for Teching and Learning in Stirling.

Stirling College, I’ve heard.

I’ll be listening in at 2pm but it is crappy with the principals not being at their schools.

No doubt they’ll be shut away at Manning Clark House.

ahh, i wondered why there were a few people sitting outside the la with a save cook banner yesterday..thanks for clearing that up.

wow, finding out melrose’s future a day after its 40th anniversary celebrations would be pretty heart-breaking..

School principals are being locked up in another location at 12:30pm for the announcement. The news will be given to the rest of the public at 2pm. Which means that schools probably won’t even have their principals on site when the students are told they’ve got two weeks to pack up and get out forever.

Oh, and tonight is the 40th anniversary celebration of Melrose Primary School opening. It’s one of the schools proposed for closure in 2006. They hope to dig up the time capsules that were buried at the school by previous generations, before the school is closed and probably bulldozed for redevelopment.

The press conference for the announcements is at 1.45 on Wednesday. Not sure what the embargo time would be.

And nyssa, Cook parents hae organised a week-long daylight-hours vigil outside the Leg Assembly, partly inspired by the year long vigil that saved their school from the last round of closures.

Oops, went to look elsewhere and hit “say it!”.

I think that they will be released either late or early – for some people to not make a comment until Barr or Chief Numpty have safely left the ACT.

Or have their phones diverted to a poor underlings.

The funds were applied for last year and approved this year. Chief Numpty accepted those funds knowing he was releasing his “hit list” in the same month.

He’s just after the money, not the betterment of ACT Govt schools.

Wednesday will be an interesting day.

Although yesterday I did see a representative from Cook PS sitting outside the LA.

The grants started to get withheld or redistributed once they started listing schools to possibly close. Not that it stopped them all, but it stopped some.

So, think they’ll make the announcement after 3.30?

Can I just comment that I thought the Save Giralang Primary School mission was a bit scary. “Meet at Kaleen Highschool at 7pm – wear all black”. What?!

Hm – well if they can’t close pre-schools this year, Dickson College is off the agenda, and they can’t close schools with big Fed Gov grants, how many are left to close down. Wedensday will be very interesting.

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