School Leaders

Message from our School Council President

Hi Everyone, my name is Dragan Rajak and I'm your School Council President.

At our School Council meetings we look into many little things, nooks and various crannies that go into running a school like contracts, formal communications, issues raised, fundraising and similar. One of the key items we also go through are the school finances to make sure they're healthy and can support the wonderful programs we have put in place that have made us a high performing school that we know and love.

So far many families have been very supportive of the school which is fantastic! Thank you to each and every one of you that has supported the school and will plan to support the school in the near future!

We are the high performing school that we are not just because of our capable teachers but because your generosity enables those teachers to keep track and hyper focus on your child needs through our iPad and laptop program. I recall that during our Department of Education school review, our iPad and Laptop program was praised as an example of a good implementation and other schools look to us as a guide on how to do things well on this front. As a parent I was skeptical on whether giving kids screens is a good idea but the proof is in the pudding.

Here's a quick summary of what it takes to run our school:

Apart from teacher salaries which are not shown or controlled by the school locally, as you can see in the diagram, government funding does not cover all other school expenditure. The Government funding is determined by student numbers and is strictly allocated to particular budget lines such as utilities, maintenance and minor works, OH&S and disadvantaged students. As a parent I'd like government funding to fully cover all school costs but unfortunately it simply doesn't and as a result every school makes up the difference via parent contributions, fundraising, International Students and hiring out the facility. At our school just over half the costs are covered by your support and generosity. Department funds covers costs - but only at a very basic level. We want more than basic for our children.

Here is how we're currently sitting with our contributions:

Looking at our internal budget numbers recently, the school is falling short and is sitting at roughly 77% of contributions across the various line items on average. Given this is the case, we need to ensure our budget is sustainable so we can make decisions at School Council on whether we need to redirect funding, revisit expensive initiatives such as the device program and cut back on budget lines.

The budget management job falls on our wonderful business manager Colin who will be contacting you to check whether you intend to contribute. It is important to note that we're doing this so we can lock in and manage the budget going forward.

Thank you all for your past, present and future support!