UNLEASH

ED

Tag: spending

  • School Donations: Rich get Richer…

    Original Article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/109937537/rich-school-poor-school-top-schools-get-millions-in-donations-while-others-get-0

    About $140 million was donated to New Zealand schools in 2017 – and more than half of that went to just 10 per cent of schools.

    Wellington College received the most money of any state school, banking almost $5.7m.

    Coming in second was St Peter’s College in the Auckland suburb of Epsom, which received more than $3m in donations.

    At Auckland Grammar School, just 350 metres down the road, donations topped $2.2m.

    And a three-minute drive away at Epsom Girls’ Grammar School, the figure was almost $1.8m.

    Between them, the three Epsom schools received just shy of $7m.

    By contrast, 37 schools recorded no donations for 2017, and a further 79 received $1000 or less.

    The data, supplied by the Ministry of Education, included all donations to a school, whether from parents or other sources.

    Wellington College had a bumper year for donations in 2017 because donors contributed to a new performing arts centre, principal Gregor Fountain said.

    Some schools have scrapped parental donations to ease the financial burden on families.

    In its election manifesto, Labour pledged an additional $150 per student for schools that did not ask parents for donations.

    Little has been said about the policy since, with Education Minister Chris Hipkins saying it was “Budget sensitive”, so he could not talk about it.

    Capping the amount schools could ask for was one of the suggestions to come out of the Tomorrow’s Schools review.

    The taskforce heard some families could be “put off” sending their children to a particular school due to high donation levels.

    Limiting the amount schools could request would mean all families had equity of choice, the report said.

    A donation was, by definition, voluntary. However, Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) president Jack Boyle said there were many schools where it “isn’t voluntary, nor is it a donation. It’s a compulsory fee”.

    Read Original Article Here

  • Email from the Minister

    ———- Forwarded message ———-

    From: “The Right Honorable Minister” <HerMajestyParata@ministryofed.govt.nz>
    Date: 4/02/2016 7:26 PM
    Subject: Ongoing Expenditure and Orders
    To: “Accounts” <MrFudge@ministryofed.govt.nz>

    Good morning sir,

    However, it is a short lived good morning as this morning has not been good at all. In fact it has been dreadful.

    We are all out of manuka honey which I was feeding to the Ministry’s prized stallion, “Whinnie”. His coat was looking a little dreary and I heard somewhere that smearing honey on their coat helps bring out a certain lustre. Of course, Whinnie deserves only the best of honey, and so I have ordered a large batch of 750g jars of Northern Hawkes Bay manuka honey. Of course, I will have the local supplier thrashed if these do not arrive on time. Please just add this to our outgoing expenditure for the month.

    In addition to this, I would like to make note of the lightbulb that has blown in the caretakers cupboard at our Horowhenua office. This is of course a huge breach of occupational health and safety, and will require a further seminar for all cleaners and custodians to attend. The only provider I have been able to find at short notice is in Sydney, and so I have gone ahead and booked flights and hotels, as is company government policy. I have also been in touch with Big Mike for him to start getting plans in place to rebuild the entire reception area in the Ministry of Education building in the Capital, seeing as Horowhenua are required to report to us. Seeing as this is a huge imposition on our staff, it is only right that they benefit in the way of being able to enjoy a fresh look as they enter their work place. I am hoping this will raise moral a little.

    I have told Big Mike, however, to watch the bottom line. He mentioned to me that instead of putting in an additional elevator, that he had a contact who had managed to get a cheap golden staircase which he would be willing to sell to us at minimal cost. This should cut the upgrade by at least $2million dollars from the proposed $30million.

    I am aware of the significant costs already spent on the stationery upgrade last month. Our custom made gold coated biro pens had “Ministry of Enducation” printed instead of “Ministry of Education”. I have been in touch with the printer, who while they cannot refund us, they can make another run at only 80% of the cost, seeing as there is now one less letter they have to print. I have okayed this deal.

    Lastly, I have asked our hygiene stockists to supply instructions on the inside roll of the Ministry designed loo paper. This should assist members to replace the toilet paper themselves, instead of having to hire the wait staff to come and perform their wipe duties. This should save the ministry about $400 a year. I have already terminated the contracts for the hygiene team.

    Please advise as to the arrival of my personal hover desk. The legs on my desk are getting tired, and will need to have a rest soon. The hover desk, while still being developed, should alleviate the health checks and risks that the legged desks have. I have gone ahead and approved the purchase of more of these for every Ministry of Education office around New Zealand, even though it may not be fully finished yet.

    I’m sure you’ll let me know if there are any issues with this. As usual, I’ll no doubt ignore your advice and refer you to HR. We cannot afford another Novopay debacle; although this was not really issue as it meant we did not have to pay the teachers for a while. I’m pretty sure they didn’t care anyway.

    Right. Off to set up the new charter school. This one is teaching purely in Latin, and will feature upside down learning. Evidently it’s been scientifically proven that any new learning actually has weight, and for children to really learn something properly, they should be turned upside down so that the information seeps down into their heads. Sounds more than plausible.

    Sincerely

    Her Majesty
    Ministry of Education
    New Zealand Government

    ———————————–

    Note: Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this message and may be subject to legal privilege. Access to this e-mail by anyone other than the intended is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not use, copy, distribute or deliver to anyone this message (or any part of its contents ) or take any action in reliance on it. In such case, you should destroy this message, and notify us immediately. Aforementioned email addresses, names, and expenditures are indeed made up and are intended for political satire.If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail or telephone and delete the e-mail from any computer. If you or your employer does not consent to internet e-mail messages of this kind, please notify us immediately. All reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure no viruses are present in this e-mail. As our company cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this e-mail or attachments we recommend that you subject these to your virus checking procedures prior to use. The views, opinions, conclusions and other informations expressed in this electronic mail are not given or endorsed by the company unless otherwise indicated by an authorized representative independent of this message. Please disregard this message if it has caused undue harm or offense.
    This article has been a follow up to the posts here: http://unleash.alingham.com/2015/the-true-cost-of-charter-schools/ and here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/76717264/ministry-of-education-spends-25m-on-stairway-to-heaven-in-office-revamp  with more to follow, no doubt. http://www.newshub.co.nz/tvshows/story/ministry-of-education-faces-backlash-for-20-million-fit-out-2016021019#axzz3zXcRH7g8

  • Ministry website ‘gold-plated’?

    The Ministry of Education has spent a whopping $1.2million on a new website.

    Source: Ministry website ‘gold-plated’?

    I am dumbfounded. Absolutely speechless.

    For once, two of my main passions collide for the first time since designing and building our school website. I worked on this in the school holidays, in my own time, and built it with content from the school’s previous website’s content.

    $1.2 million. It’s $1,200,000. That is a lot of dollars being spent for a website, which in technology terms will be requiring a re-design in 4 years time, is a ridiculous amount.

    That’s $300,000 for each year of it’s life.

    Being a web developer of a variety of small websites, I know the approximate costs of doing this. To get some idea around website costings for large websites, I went and looked up approximate costs for large website designs, for which Education.govt.nz would fit into.

    Executionists suggests that large websites with all the costs can range in the area of $14,700 – $29,900. Being from a US based website, we can assume that this translates to $23,000 – $46,000 per year.

    While this is based on approximate costs, it certainly isn’t anywhere in the region of $1.2 million, or even $300,000.

    Silverstripe is the CMS (Content Management System) that is being used as the backend of the website. This is a Wellington based company, who I have had some minor dealings with (friends of friends helped develop it). Its incredibly flexible, but a lot of the management is done for the user. Silverstripe do partner with developers to help build web solutions. However, it is also Open Source, meaning the Government doesn’t NEED to pay a cent for it.  In 2013, the Government teamed up with Silverstripe as a ‘common web platform’, because it would save money by encouraging the use of Silverstripe for all Government websites, which suggested that 10-15 government  websites were built or redesigned each year.

    The Government has even set up a demo of Silverstripe so that Government agencies can have a play around. Actually, anyone can have a play around. I quite easily signed in and could begin building a demo site. It was easy to see how the Ministry of Education website was developed on from here.

    So, if this is the case, if the back end is already sorted out into default templates; then how did this website end up costing $1.2million?

    Refresh

    There is no doubt the old Ministry of Education website was due for a rebuild. The old site was developed in 2008, and I’m surprised it has taken this long for it to be re-built. Though, if it has a $1.2 million price tag, maybe it is understandable.

    It frustrates me that all that is said in defense of this spending is that the previous website was old and tired and required a rebuild, with new functionality and innovations that is required for our learners, whanau, and teachers in today’s online environment.

    But, at the end of the day, the money spent is exorbitant amount in any terms. It makes me wonder if the Government even “shopped” around for its development. Surely there are a variety of design companies out there that would do as good a job, including all the “functionality”, for a much more reasonable price tag. No one is saying it didn’t require a rebuild. What is being said is that it doesn’t need a whopping $1.2 million spent on a rebuild.

    Historic Trend

    Wait a minute. Haven’t we already seen this? Extreme expenditure on seemingly mundane things?

    Of course we have. This Government has built a reputation for burning holes in it’s pockets.

    Take the case of the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment. In June, it emerged that $70,000 (not previously stated $24,000) was spent on a stone sign out the front of the building. In either case, $24,000 is a ridiculous amount.

    Fast forward to June 17, and it emerges that MBIE spends a whopping $140,000 on a curvy screen that is now in their reception area in the head office in Wellington. This is to go along with a $75,000 reception desk.

    It doesn’t just stop there though. Let’s take a look at the $26,000,000 spent on the new flag that ‘no one’ wants. I say no-one, but I may be exaggerating – much like the expenditure of this Government.

    Meanwhile, children starve, nurses go without a pay-rise, and miners face an improper burial. No amount of money should hold these things back from happening, yet picking and choosing seems to be all that happens.

    As Chris Hipkins and others have put it; this money could be better spent on other things. That’s not to say that the website shouldn’t have been rebuilt; but that this could have been carried out without spending such an unreasonable amount of money.