Hon Sue Ellery questions the Minister for Education regarding how utility costs are factored into the student-centred funding model for education support centres on mainstream school sites, and what guidelines are provided to schools for calculating appropriate rates. The Minister explains the redistribution of utility funding and tables a support sheet with guidelines and a cost apportionment calculator.

AnsweredQoN 1327Legislative Council
Asked
26 November 2014
Portfolio
Education

QuestionView source ↗

EDUCATION —
SUPPORT CENTRES — STUDENT-CENTRED FUNDING MODEL
1327. Hon SUE ELLERY to
the Minister for Education:
(1) How were utility costs factored into the
funding for schools under the student-centred funding model for education
support centres on mainstream school sites?
(2) What guidelines are provided to the
mainstream schools as to how to calculate an appropriate rate for those
education support centres?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) Under the new student-centred funding
model, all of the funding previously provided for utilities will be
redistributed through the per-student and, when relevant, the enrolment-linked
base and locality allocation funding. This is the case for education support
centres, as well as other schools.
� The
Department of Education has ensured that each school has sufficient funding to
cover general operating costs, including salaries for principals, teachers and
support staff, as well as costs for utilities, cleaning and gardening. This was
based on historical site costs, including utilities for each school, and
therefore incorporated the varying utility costs in each school.
� By
managing the school's utilities, principals will have the flexibility
to consider the most effective operations for their schools and when savings
can be made in the utility costs, these savings can be allocated to other
resources.
� The
department will continue to monitor utility costs so that refinements to the
per-student and school-characteristic funding can be made to incorporate future
changes in utility prices.
(2) I table a support sheet that provides
guidelines for schools operating as a shared site, as is the case for education
support centres.
� A
calculator has also been developed to assist schools in devising an apportionment
of costs between the schools.
[See paper 2326.]

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