Pokies propping up Eastern Bay schools

By SHIRLEY WHITWELL in Whakatane
Eastern Bay of Plenty secondary school staff are spending as many hours seeking funding to keep their doors open as they are teaching.

Much of the funding comes from charitable trusts, with schools vying against each other as well as community groups.

Edgecumbe College principal Gavin Greenfield said the school has just installed 26 new computers and bought a new van - all of which have only been possible through funding from the Southern Trust, a gaming Machine charity.

"We have virtually no funds for major capital items. Without the funding from the pokie charities we would not be be able to upgrade our systems."

Mr Greenfield said the new van replaced a 1987 vehicle which was close to failing the required compliance. The new van cost $30,000.

"It is a double whammy - because we are a rural school we need the van to transport students to sports and career days, but as a decile two school it is difficult to be continually asking the community to fund such essentials - it is always a case of prioritising."

Trident High School principal Peter Tootell said the school was very reliant on pub charities.

"The foreign fee-paying students the government talks about attracting [don't] apply in this district.

"The students want to stay in the cities, so we do not attract enough to warrant the extra staff needed - if the government want us to attract these students they have [to] fund us adequately."

He said the community supported the school well in fundraising efforts for extra-curricular trips but basic operating grants did not cover costs.

"We are using the operational grants to buy sports equipment, uniforms, travel to tournaments, even musical instruments."

Mr Tootell said the operational grant was also used to pay some teachers.

"Our numbers fall outside the funding formula in regards to special needs and our farming/forestry course, so we fund the teachers out of the operational grant.

"I believe the Government should be funding all these things - they are a basic part of education."

Kawerau College Principal Steve Hocking said the school had received about $100,000 from gaming charities this year.

"About 70 percent of this should be Government funded."

He said the school was also paying two-and-a-half teachers from the operational grants.

"Without doing so we would not have enough staff to offer the curriculum.

"We cannot attract fee paying students which I recognise are big money for other schools."

He said the staff each year produce a secondary schools directory which was on-sold to schools, raising $7000 to $10,000.

"This pays for our administration furniture and equipment - basically the staff are raising funds for their own equipment."

He said about 30 percent of his time was spent seeking and applying for funding.

Both Mr Tootell and Mr Hocking described the latest initiative of making Government funding contestable as "dangerous."

Mr Hocking said the result was the eight secondary schools in the district were competing against each other for Government dollars.

Mr Tootell said the other danger was winning the funding from a neighbouring school only to have it stopped after three years, resulting in the programme being left in disarray.

"The Government wants to make schools self sustainable.

"We are supposed to be educators not profit-makers."