school council
from the finance committee
To the School Community,
With the end of the year rapidly approaching, the Finance Committee thought it would be an ideal opportunity to update the School Community on happenings in this sub-committee.
Over the past 12 months many of you will have noticed changes in the BNW office team, which has meant we’ve had to play some catch up on processes and systems. Equally we’ve had some wonderful energy and enthusiasm in the office to look at all things finance related with fresh eyes.
One area of concern highlighted by the new office team is that the School’s financial position is not as positive as we have thought it was. This is undoubtedly a concern for the Finance Committee, School Council and the BNW leadership team. The challenge with our financial position is due to several factors;
- A change in financial treatment created some opaqueness in the accounts which meant BNW overspent in salaries and wages.
- A surprisingly large amount of outstanding Family Accounts from 2019, and even back in 2018. Family commitment to pay school fees are a really important contribution to support the School.
- And a range of invoices from end 2018, which were only made obvious to the team in 2019.
What does this mean? It means we need to carefully manage our budgets for the next year or so. It means we may need to consider more deeply some discretionary spending around the school for the next year or so. It means we have an amount of money we owe to the Department which will be progressively paid back over 2020.
What is doesn’t mean is any impact on your child’s learning, the resources available to them or the programs on offer by the School. It doesn’t mean any reduction in the teaching or office teams, any increase in class sizes or any change to the way this wonderful School operates.
With all this said, BNW continues to work with the Department in a very positive way in relation to the major funding commitment of $6.2 million. We will see a sizeable portion of these funds being directed to the maintenance and significant improvement of existing facilities. It will be wonderful to see this capital spending come through in late 2020 and over the following years.
We are writing to let you know this in the interest of being transparent and open. As disappointed as I am personally to inform the School Community of this news, I do want to reassure everyone the numbers are modest in size and there will be no negative impact on the School.
You are most welcome to contact myself or Hannah should you wish to discuss this further.
Sam Cohen – BNW Treasurer
m. 0412 375 061