Our Governing Council Letter to Parents

KILKENNY PRIMARY SCHOOL GOVERNING COUNCIL


3 July 2007

Subject: State Budget Cuts and their effect on our School

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Your Governing Council Representatives wish to alert you to the State Governments current proposals to slash funding to Public Schools and specifically Kilkenny Primary School and the effect these budget proposals will have on our school. Currently the State Government is proposing to remove $72 Million from the Public Schools in the next three years.

As many of you may know, our Principal has been given a set of guidelines to determine the actual cost of the proposed budget cuts, and has determined that the cost to Kilkenny Primary School alone could be in the vicinity of $30,000 less money every year, to spend on Curriculum (and therefore the resources and activities which enrich our students learning).

In plain terms, this could mean reductions in Guided Reading to one day a week, no new computing upgrades, reductions in Front Office Support, reductions in maintenance budgets, reductions in Library Budgets, withdrawal of subsidies for activities and excursions, increases in School Fees, reduction of budgets for classrooms and other discretionary spending. The list is very long. If you are comfortable with this, then do nothing. If not, please do something. This will affect your children if they attend Public Schools anywhere in South Australia. All schools are facing the same cuts.

The current back down that has made on the proposed cuts on the Work Cover Levy is only a small part of the overall proposed reductions to schools funds. As a community the time for us to act is now, before these proposed budget cuts are finalized. If we do not let the politicians know loudly and firmly that these proposals are not acceptable, our school will be forced to work on an even more restricted budget, and therefore our children’s learning will suffer.

On behalf of Governing Council I would like to urge you to be an active participant in whatever ways you feel comfortable in letting politicians know that their proposed budget cuts are ill-informed, and will have a drastic negative impact on Public Schools and specifically Kilkenny Primary School. The following is suggested language that you could use. Please personalize the message with your own name and any issues that you believe are important. The more people that respond to this, the more the State Government understand that their budget cuts are widely disapproved of, and will be an enormous mistake.
A copy of an example letter is provided on the other side of this letter.

Based upon our experience individual contact with politicians is very valuable in making our case.

Yours Sincerely,


Deanna Isles
President
On behalf of Kilkenny Primary School Governing Council

Example Letter

Dear ______,

I am writing to you to express my enormous disappointment in the poor decisions that have been made in terms of budget cuts towards education by your political party. My child/children’s school leader has determined that our school, Kilkenny Primary school, will lose in the vicinity of $30,000 per year if the budget cuts are implemented. This loss of money will come directly from the Curriculum budget, and will have a significant impact on the schools ability to purchase new resources, to replace resources such as computers when they need to be upgraded, and a reduction in the extra activities which enrich the education of our children. If you value public education, you will not go through with any of these ill-informed budget cuts, as the effect that it will have will be devastating to the public school system.

I would like to receive a response from you letting me know how you intend to address my concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Name of correspondent

Some people that it would be pertinent to send messages to include:

MP for Croydon Education Secretary Premier Treasurer
Michael Atkinson Dr. Jane Lomax-Smith Mike Rann Kevin Foley
Member for Croydon Member for Adelaide Member for Ramsey Member for Pt Adelaide
488 Port Rd 84 Prospect Rd 40-42 Commercial Road 70 Dale Pl
Welland 5007 Prospect 5082 Salisbury 5108 Adelaide 5000
croydon@parliament.sa.gov.au adelaide@parliament.sa.gov.au ramsay@parliament.sa.gov.au ptadelaide@parliament.sa.gov.au

Please also talk to, write to or email your own Member of Parliament.

Other parliament email and address information can be found at the SA Parliament website.

Please also visit the following website, maintained by a Governing Council Member and School Parent. A copy of the letter is on this site and can be copied and pasted into an email or letter.

The website address is http://salaborlollyjarthieves.blogspot.com

Please remember that these cuts will affect all Public Schools, not just Kilkenny Primary School, so if you support public education or plan to send your children to Public Schools, this is important.

You can make a difference. Please do your bit to support Kilkenny Primary School and all Public Schools.

Thank you.