Waiouru kindergartens survive, despite many changes

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 583, 25 April 1995, Page 1

Waiouru kindergartens survive, despite many changes

By

Michele

Monaghan

The Waiouru community is very lucky to have two fully staffed kindergartens and two hard working committees according to teachers Sue Kumeroa, Cindy Hammond, (Weir Terrace), Margie Dennehy and Shelley Newson (Kenningston). "The community is very lucky considering the vacancies throughout the country," said Miss Dennehy. j*4

"And the locatiori," added Ms

Newson.

Two years ago Waiou-

ru' s two kindergartens

changed from the

Ruahine to the

Wanganui

Asso-

ciation to ward off

the impending

Turn to Page2

Waiouru kindergartens survive

FROMPAGEl closure of one of the kindergartens. Since the changeover Waiouru has secured the presence of two 30/30 roll kindergartens within the community. "The staff acknowledge we are lucky to work with employers that do consult with us. We continue to receive support and encouragement (from the Wanganui Association)," said Mrs Kumeroa. Since the advent of bulk fiinding in 1992 kindergarten associations have had to juggle their finances to make their money stretch enough to pay teachers' salaries. "It was the beginning of the end of kindergartens as we knew them since the introduction of bulk fiinding," said Miss Dennehy. This year, teachers within the Wanganui Association have opted to work an extra seven days to help balance the books. Bulk fiinding could work if kindergartens maintained fiill rolls, said the teachers, but very few kindergartens nationally maintain full rolls. The teachers put this down to several factors including a drop in the population of three and four year olds as smaller families become the vogue, more parents working, and the availability of alternative early childhood education centres. "It's (the money) just not sufficient. The government would debate this and the arguments sound logical but they're not. The kindergartens are not generating enough revenue to pay all the salaries. All the associations are struggling with the same problems," she said. In this time of user pays, more and more is being asked of parents to help keep kindergarten heads above water. The voluntary donation of about $70 per term covers the basics only, said Ms Newson, basics like cleaning, power and telephone charges. Everything else has to be fundraised for. Committees made up of parents work endlessly to fill empty coffers to provide quality early childhood education for their children.

"We still rely heavily on parent support," said Ms Newson. "Parents are often asked to do skilled and previously paid jobs for nothing - no recognition or reimbursement," she said. These jobs include accounting, forecasting budgets, maintenance, publicity work and travel. The teachers said kindergarten associations rely heavily on parent support too. The Wanganui association has two part-time paid positions, those of administration officer and finance officer. Six parents make up the management board of the association. Bulk funding for the Wanganui association has been reduced down to the national average this year and it will be left up to the parents belonging to the association to juggle, stretch and provide options to survive the school year. Bulk funding rates were set by government in 1991 and have not changed since then.