Bank loan to pay teacher

By Tania Martin
PARENTS have rallied behind Olinda Primary School to save a teacher after discovering the school was running on a funding shortfall.
Twelve parents have said they are prepared to take out personal loans to cover the $60,000 shortfall, while others are working hard to increase the school’s enrolments and fund raising.
School principal Jorg Kiene said funds were not being cut to the school but that there was a shortfall after the school predicted it was going to have a certain number of enrolments and then employed teachers on that prediction.
But Mr Kiene said the prediction was wrong and more enrolments were needed to cover the cost of the extra teacher.
He said the parents’ decision to dip into their own pockets followed a meeting two weeks ago which canvassed a number of options to keep Olinda’s full complement of teachers.
“One of the options was to combine some of the current grades, which would mean losing a teacher, but the parents felt that this was not an option,” he said.
He said the parents were prepared to pay for the teacher themselves if they had to.
“I have never before seen anything like this and I have been a teacher for 35 years,” he said.
Olinda Primary School has a unique education program running both a Steiner stream alongside mainstream education for the past 12 months.
Steiner education is usually only offered in the private schooling system but Olinda Primary School has taken up the initiative to combine the two streams together.
The Steiner stream balances academic subjects with artistic and practical activities.
School council president Heather Herbert said all parents were behind the fight to maintain the current teacher numbers at the school.
She said one class has already raised $12,000, while other parents have made personal donations and others have said they are willing to take out personal loans to cover the funding shortfall.
Ms Herbert said the local business community had also jumped to help the school with its funding efforts.
She said a local bank had spoken to one of the parents about tailoring a loan to suit those parents who could afford to take out a personal loan.
Tim Mitchell, spokesman for Education MP Lynne Kosky, said the school was being funded adequately and that it was only common sense that fewer student enrolments would equal less money.
He said Olinda Primary had a very good student teacher ratio with one teacher for every 15 students.
Meanwhile, Liberal candidate for Monbulk Clive Larkman has hit out at the State Government for not helping the school keep its teacher.
He said the government would only need to allocate one tenth of a percent of what they have wasted on advertising and Olinda Primary School could keep its teacher.
Monbulk MP James Merlino was unable to comment as he was still on his honeymoon.