Term 4 is well and truly underway, with a buzz of activity on all fronts. Yesterday and today the Board met at St Mary’s in Ararat, welcoming Laura Avery as our most newly appointed director to her first meeting. Principal Roxanne Leed and senior students led us in prayer, spoke with pride about their great school and took us on a tour of the school including all their new and upgraded facilities.
The Board reviewed updates to key policies and the School Advisory Council terms of reference and discussed Board induction and succession planning. We talked over the new Winter Valley school and dedicated significant time to future planning, notably regarding funding sources and the EBA negotiations. Bruce Phillips from the VCEA provided a briefing on the future of Catholic school funding in light of the possibility of the Labor party, if re-elected, making changes to Victorian legislation that currently provides for recurrent per-student funding equal to 25% of the per-student funding for state schools. The Liberal and National parties have committed to retain the current funding level but we are yet to achieve a retraction of Labor’s proposal to reduce this funding. I wrote to the Labor candidates and representatives for our electorates last week, requesting their support in altering their party’s position. If necessary, we will be seeking your support in the coming days and weeks in campaigning for a commitment to retain the 25% matched state funding and will share more shortly. We will not stand by passively as children in our schools are denied the financial support for their education that has previously been agreed to by Labor, Liberal and the National parties and in place since 2015.
Learning more about local issues and discussing plans to tackle the financial headwinds we are facing for 2027 were a focus of my discussions with school leadership during my visits last Friday to three of our primary schools: St Augustine’s in Maryborough, St Michael’s in Daylesford and St Augustine’s in Creswick. I also had the pleasure of seeing the new and most recent learning spaces at all three of these schools and of meeting two grade 6 boys in Creswick who will very soon overtake me in stature!
Wishing you a productive week ahead as we share our faith through actions and prayer in this Mission-focused month. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our schools and support.
With best wishes,
Tom Sexton
Executive Director