COMMITTEE’S DILEMMA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 76, 20 May 1946, Page 5

COMMITTEE’S DILEMMA

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES HEAVY FUEL BILL A blow was delivered at the meeting of the Whakatane School Com--mittee last Wednesday evening when the chairman (Mr J. W. Wilson) announced that the committee was definitely in financial difficulties. When all present commitments had been met, a balance of £9 would exist, and the next wages paid to the school caretaker would reduce the funds at the committee’s disposal to a matter of a few shillings. The next quarterly grant from the Board was not due for another two. months.

Outlining the position further, the chairman said that up till a few months ago, a reserve of £SO had always been kept in hand. Recent expenditure had reduced this considerably, and the position was now, bluntly, that the committee was ‘on the rocks.’ The only way out that he could see was to put the matter before the Board, and ask for assistance with the bill for fuel which, this year amounted to nearly £7O.

Mr W. Whittaker: I don’t think we are spending money unnecessari-

The Chairman: No, but we have been perhaps a little to free with certain items. Almost everything that had asked for such as renewing the sand in the sand pit, supplying buckets for waste paper receptacles etc., we have granted.

Mr H. D. Paterson: But the sand, pit needed refilling. Mr G. E. Mahy: And the buckets won’t have to be renewed for years. Mr W. E. Armstrong: We have perhaps been a little too much on the liberal side with supplying the various items the Headmaster has requested. The Chairman: There is only one thing for it. We will have to make the position such during the next few months that not one penny worth of stuff is ordered without an approval and an order from us. There is no hope at all of us getting a larger grant. We aren’t the first school committee by a long way to get into financial difficulties.

Asked whether it was within the Board’s power to assist with the bill for firing, the chairman stated that actually fuel held second priority on the list of things allocated to eom-j mittee’s to pay for. Fuel, he said, was worked out on a per capital basis. k I

The recent change in the methods by which the school was cleaned, the chairman-continued, had resulted in a saving to the committee of £llO, but another liability in the form of a school caretaker had been added. “N?

It was decided that a letter be written to the Board, asking foi financial assistance with the fuel account, and that the condition . of the committee’s finances be placed before the next meeting of the Whakatane Parent-Teacher Association.