Important Message from the Board of Trustees

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whānau,

 This is an email we hoped we’d never have to write.

 For many years, our school has benefitted from plentiful resources, very well-maintained facilities, and enough teachers and teacher aides to enable smaller class sizes and an excellent environment for our children to thrive in.

 This year, we have a $110,000 shortfall in the money the school has received from donations. That represents around 40% of our families choosing not to pay a donation. We know that donations are optional, and that parents have a choice on if and how much they choose to pay. We remain grateful for every cent donated – especially given how tough things have been for many recently – especially compounded by Covid-19. To put this into perspective, the shortfall is approximately equal to 1 full-time teacher and around 40% of our resources like books and art supplies.

 Simply put, a significant chunk of the school’s funding to support our fabulous resourcing and to maintain smaller class sizes comes from your donations.  In total, the money we receive from the Ministry of Education doesn’t cover the staffing and resourcing we all benefit from and have become accustomed to over the years. There isn’t anything else we can realistically scale back on in our fixed costs (things like keeping the lights on, paying core salaries, keeping toilets flushing and heaters working). Yes, we’ve had recent grants provided by the government, but with very strict criteria about when and how that money could be spent – believe us… we’d choose to spend that on teachers and resources over buildings every day if we physically could.

 In recent times, the Board of Trustees have been fortunate enough to use uncommitted funds in the bank when we’ve had a shortfall, so that we could continue to offer these additional programmes and resources (like sports, and music, and ESOL, and Eureka, and reading recovery, and STEAM, and topping up funding for teacher aides for children with special needs, and much much more) as we believe that maintaining these standards and programmes is a really important part of what makes our school special. It’s not sustainable for us to continue to use board uncommitted funds every year – and this year, the shortfall is far larger than we are able to cover without harming the long-term security of our school’s finances.

 Sadly, as many families have not paid any school donation, there comes a consequence that all of us must bear. The management team at CPDS will now need to review staffing levels for 2021 as well as heavily cutting back on all curriculum related spending on resources.

 If you haven’t yet paid your donation and you have the means to do so, we urge you to donate whatever you can to help us reduce this shortfall and keep staffing and resourcing levels as close to their current levels as possible. This school is special because of the extra things we can do for the children. Without your donations, we fear that we’ll lose our sparkle, and that is not something we ever want to happen.

 Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your continued support of the school. Thank you for funding an environment where your children can thrive. Thank you for your donation.

Kind regards

Board of Trustees

• Nick Mackeson-Smith (Board Chair)

• Andrew Bason (Deputy Chair)

• Sarah Sutcliffe (Treasurer)

• Janine Irvine (Principal)

• Sanjeev Deva

• Kirstin Fleming

• George Tan

• Anne Patel

亲爱的家长，看护人您们好，

这是一封我们希望永远不必发出的电子邮件。

多年来，我们学校擁有丰富的资源，维护良好的设施以及足够的老师和助教，使得班级人数可以控制在较少人数，并给孩子们良好的成长环境。

今年，我们从学校收到的捐款中有11万元的缺口。这代表了我们大约有 40％ 的家庭选择不捐款。我们知道捐款是可选择的，父母可以选择是否支付以及支付多少。我们对每笔捐款都表示感谢 – 特别是考虑到最近有许多人处境艰难 – 特别加上 Covid-19 的影响。从这个角度来看，这个缺口大约相当于一名专职老师，还有约占我们书本和美术用品等 40% 的资源。

简而言之，学校的很大一部分资金来自您的捐款，以支持我们充足的资源配置和维持较小的班级规模。总的来说，这些年来我们从教育部获得的资金并不足夠让所有人都能受益和大家已经习惯的人员配备和资源。我们没有什么可以实际削减固定成本的地方（ 例如保持灯光，支付核心工资，保持马桶冲洗和室内空调正常工作之类的费用 ）。是的，我们最近获得了政府的拨款，但是对于何时使用以及如何使用这笔钱有非常严格的规定 – 请相信我们……如果我们可以自己决定如何运用这笔拨款，我们会选择将拨款用于教师和资源上，而不是在建筑物上。

最近一段时间，董事会在资金短缺时动用了学校在银行备用的资金，因此我们可以继续提供这些额外的活动和资源（ 例如体育，音乐，ESOL 和 Eureka，加强阅读，STEAM，以及为有特殊需要的孩子们的教师助手补充资金，等等 )。因为我们相信保持这些标准和课程是使我们学校与众不同的重要组成成分。我们不能每年都持续使用董事会的备用资金 – 今年，这一资金缺口远远超过了我们所能弥补的范围，并且担心它将损害学校长期财务安全性的能力。

可惜的是，由于许多家庭没有支付任何学校捐款，结果是我们所有人必须共同承担的。 CPDS 的管理团队现在必须要审查 2021 年的人员配备，并大量削减与课程相关的所有资源支出。

如果您尚未支付捐款，而您有能力可以捐款，我们希望您尽可能的捐款，以帮助我们减少这一短缺，并使人员和资源配置尽可能接近目前的水平。这所学校之所以特别，是因为我们可以为孩子们做更多的事情。没有您的捐款，我们担心我们将失去我们的光芒和希望，这从来都不是我们想要发生的事情。

谢谢您阅读这个信息。感谢您一直以来对学校的支持。感谢您为孩子们可以成长茁壮的环境提供资金。感谢您的捐款。

 

董事会

Nick Mackeson-Smith（ 董事会会长 ）

Andrew Bason（董事会副会长 ）

Sarah Sutcliffe（ 财务主管 ）

Janine Irvine（ 校长 ）

Sanjeev Deva

Kirstin Fleming

George Tan

Anne Patel