School Council

SCHOOL COUNCIL TREASURER REPORT- Sarah Sorenson

Hello SMPPS community, I have recently joined the School Council in the role of Treasurer and look forward to working with other members of school council to be help support the school in ensuring we can deliver the best education experience for all students.

I have one child in the school, Mia who is in Grade 1/2V, she absolutely loves being a student at SMPSS.  I have a background in Finance and currently work in the Not-For-Profit Sector for a Women’s Health Foundation and I am passionate about all things health and fitness though I do have a weakness for ice-cream!

I would like to take this opportunity to share with the school community an update on the school’s operational budget.  Prior to joining school council, I was a bit oblivious to how school funding actually worked, we are often led to believe that public education is all government funded.  Whilst the government does contribute significantly to schools and fund teaching staff, they only partially fund the school’s operational expenses.

The operational expenses of the school include everything from utility and maintenance costs, classroom furniture and the materials used in classrooms to directly support the student’s learning experience. The school also has to fund larger projects such as a new playground and the installation of air-conditioning.

These expenses are funded through 3 main sources:

• Department of Education
• Parent Voluntary Contributions
• Other Income – which includes fundraising activities and income from hiring of school facilities.

When the 2021 operational budget was formed, the school along with school council determined what level of parent contributions were required in conjunction with the government funding expected.

The voluntary contributions were set across a number of different categories with a suggested amount to contribute per category.  As you can see from the above chart the actual contributions received were significantly lower than the suggested amounts with on average a contribution of $180 per student versus the suggested amount of $600.

If combining the suggested voluntary contribution with the student essentials payment, on average the annual cost of parent contributions would be $860 per student (depending on the year level).  In comparison to early childhood education this is actually a very low cost for ensuring quality primary school education for the students. 

4-year-old kindergarten in the local area is on average $4,000 per year ($1,000 per term), whilst the cost of full-time childcare is anywhere in excess of $10k per year.  When taking this into consideration, the cost of public primary school education is actually very low for families.

As a parent, I appreciate that January isn’t the best time to be paying for school fees, having just had Christmas, school holidays and buying new uniforms for our children who seem to grow overnight. As such, the school has set up an option via Qkr! to allow parents to contribute towards school fees at any-time throughout the year. 

I would encourage each of you to consider contributing to the school to ensure that the school can continue to provide a high-quality learning experience to all students.  Contributions made towards the Building and Library Funds are also tax deductible so as we fast approach end of financial year it is a perfect opportunity to make a tax-deductible contribution.

Sarah Sorenson

School Council Treasurer