At Davidson High School in Frenchs Forest near the northern beaches,parents have been lobbying the government for upgrades to the school hall.
“There is no permanent stage or seating,the ceiling panels and louvres are broken in multiple places,the toilets are the same ones since the school began,” P&C president Anahita Olsen said.
They were promised upgrades after attracting media attention in February,and the department agreed to refurbish the change rooms to accommodate students with additional needs.
St Ives High School P&C president Sarah Gibbons said they were being asked to fund wellbeing programs,in addition to shade cloth,textbooks and buses.
“P&Cs used to be the icing on the cake,but it is now more the fundamentals,” she said.
Teachers were last October awarded a historic pay rise of up to $10,000 a year. Education Minister Prue Car said the pay rise would be funded through measures including reducing the number of executive teachers who did not have face-to-face time in classrooms,while also reducing consultants and labour hire.
David Hope,president of the Northern Sydney District of P&Cs,said parents reported that operating budgets had also been cut. Weekly interschool sport at north shore schools was cancelled earlier this year because they could not afford to pay the bus fees.
“I am not against the teachers getting salary increases but the problem is the pay rise does not appear to have been budgeted for,” Hope said.
Secondary Principals’ Council deputy president Charles Gauci said schools’ operational budgets had been reduced,while it was difficult to find tradespeople for capital works and it was costing more.
“It is a huge pay rise ... it has to be covered by the department’s finances,they have to find savings across the board. The department is trying to find as many savings which do not impact the front line of schools,” he said.
‘P&Cs used to be the icing on the cake,but it is now more the fundamentals.’
Sarah Gibbons,St Ives High School P and C
The management of school maintenance and minor capital works had also undergone an overhaul,with the department’s asset management unit taking control of the process in July last year. Previously it was outsourced to private contractors.
Schools were told principals should no longer manage small projects of less than $30,000,and the asset management team would reduce principals’ administration burden.
Gauci said that was welcome but there had been teething issues in the asset management unit,which meant large projects had experienced delays.
“The other biggest delay is finding the tradespeople to get things moving,” he said.
A Department of Education spokesperson said the new arrangement had simplified the callout process and supported direct contracts with local tradespeople close to schools.
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“This has drastically reduced the callout time from an average of 16 days to five days to close out maintenance requests. More than 83 per cent of callouts are now responded to within 24 hours under the new contract,compared to 60 per cent under the old contract,” the spokesperson said.
Asked if schools’ budgets had been cut to pay for the wage rise,a department spokesperson said:“While funding plays an important role in improving student outcomes,what matters most is putting teachers in classrooms. NSW started the school year with a 20 per cent fall in teacher vacancies and its teachers are now among the best paid in Australia.”