It's getting harder and harder to find the funds we need to survive, let alone let children thrive.
Our roll takes another hit every day with families moving out of Red Zone houses and into new homes out of our zone. In the majority of cases to places far afield.
There are several reasons -
The payout on properties is well below what is required to get into a new home in our community.
There are almost no empty, suitable, available, affordable homes in our zone to purchase.
The new subdivisions opening in Kaiapoi are right on our neighboring school's back doorstep, so they are nowhere near being in zone for us.
Families may have an undamaged home, but may well have lost their business or lost their job. Therefore they have to move anyway.
It is a time of great frustration for us, but there is little we can do beyond that which we do every day - smile, brave face, speak encouraging words, give out hugs and high fives, listen to people as they share their problems, challenges and concerns.
As we head down from a high of 620 children, to around 420 at present, we are faced with some major issues. Our fixed costs remain the same, or are going up. Rates - up. Water, heat, light and power - up. Insurance - doubled. Wage rates for contract staff - up.
We have the same number of rooms to clean, the same number of rooms to heat and equip. We have the same number of hours for Office Staff, Caretakers and Cleaners because they are needed for those hours whether we have 420 or 520 children.
Our costs are going up but our income drops by $150,000 with this fallen roll. Add to that that we have lost $95,000 a year from International Students - this was keeping us financially afloat - and you can see we face huge challenges.
So, we look for alternatives. One is the Colgate Challenge, where the school that collects the most empty Colgate Toothpaste Cartons wins $12,500. This would be a God-Send as they say.
Our children have been incredibly proactive and innovative and have put together a world-wide request for support. The responses are coming in from half a dozen countries and eight different states in the USA.
If you want to help us, please collect as many Colgate boxes as you can, flatten them and post them to...
Studio 21
Kaiapoi Borough School
20 Hilton Street
Kaiapoi 7630
Christchurch
New Zealand.
We will be so grateful if you can help. Blessings to all.
Don't Feed Our Kids
13 years ago
