By REBECCA WALSH education reporter
More schools are now in the red but administrators say it is no cause for alarm.
Ministry of Education figures show that the number of schools ending the year in deficit has risen from 29 per cent in 1995 to 38 per cent for the 1999 financial year.
But the ministry's chief accountant, Tom Roach, said that while the greater number was a concern at face value, there were good reasons for the increase.
The ministry had encouraged schools to put money aside for maintenance, such as painting, and other big expenses, he said.
The average operating deficit for a secondary school has grown from $48,571 to $71,729.
The average primary school shortfall has risen from $10,389 to $17,744.
The president of the Principals' Federation, Geoff Lovegrove, did not believe that the figures were a "big deal."
But he said it was a problem for a school to be in deficit for more than two years.
He expected that next year's redistribution of the $107 million bulk-funding allocation would help to redress the problem for the next few years.
But schools would still rely on community support to supplement their income for "luxuries" such as programmes for gifted children and extra computers.
"When it comes to the crunch, if the funding is tight it will be a matter of survival." Mr Lovegrove said.
"We will always revert to providing the basic subjects as well as we can."
The president of the School Trustees' Association, Chris France, said the figures were a concern and his group would keep an eye on the issue.
While the increase in the operations grant and the redistributed bulk-funding money would benefit schools, it was unclear what impact the wage rounds for support staff and day-to-day costs would have on the funding.
Mr France said there were fears that the operations grant for schools would not keep pace with rising inflation.
The ministry figures reveal that schools in poorer areas tend to have worse deficits.
The 1999 figures, which have yet to be confirmed, show that the average deficit per secondary school student in poorer decile 1 to 3 schools was $129.
Decile 8 to 10 schools had an average deficit of $81 a student.
Figures for primary schools were similar.
The ministry said that only 16 per cent of schools recorded an operating deficit for two years in a row.
School cash troubles shrugged off
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