Saving Kormilda ... but at what cost?

Kormilda College’s future seems safe. But some are questioning where the funding is coming from, and wondering how long such support will last, on its long road back to financial freedom

Michael Long announces to the students of Kormilda College that the school will be saved.

PARENTS, teachers and students cheered yesterday when told Kormilda College would survive to see the 2017 school year.

The announcement ended weeks of uncertainty.

In mid-September, on the first day of being sworn in, Education Minister Eva Lawler was briefed the school could not keep its doors open until the end of the year leaving 600 students, 200 of them indigenous, stranded in the closing stages of the academic year.

The Gunner Government moved decisively to bail them out with $5 million.

But after the 2016 school year, the school’s future was up in the air. Until Thursday.

There was a last minute political intervention by the Federal Government, guaranteeing funding for another year.

It has removed the built-up pressure on two levels of government, students, teachers and parents.

But why did it have to get to this point?

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Different parties wear different levels of the criticism for Kormilda’s crisis situation.

And the eight-member board, dumped by parents at the start of this week, appear to wear the largest amount.

Michael Long speaks to the media.

Its chairman Peter Jones dramatically understated the point when he told media: “We should’ve gone public sooner.”

Parents at a Monday night meeting said they learned of the school’s financial position reading the NT News, when the $5 million funding bailout by Education Minister Eva Lawler was made public.

Nor could they have known, given the school’s last two annual reports did not include the school’s audited financials.

The NT News has now received audited reports from 2013 and 2014 lodged with ASIC as is required.

Among the figures were a massive $5 million revenue drop, a $2.2 million deficit and the successful approval of a $2.7 million BankSA overdraft.

How was the board able to avoid parental scrutiny on financial matters is a question which must be answered.

Did any parents raise the issue with the school of the non-inclusion of financials in their annual report? A financial crisis was consistently denied when clearly we now know there was one.

We also know the Sydney Anglican Corporation of Schools all but completed a due diligence to takeover the institution before withdrawing at the last minute — why?

Mr Jones said the shareholders were the two churches and the financial statements were forwarded directly to them.

Kormilda College students Aben Sandy, 14, and Chloe Algy, 14.

There was no legal requirement for them to have been made public.

“The annual report contains the content required by the NT Education Act,” he said.

“As well, as required by the Education Act, the audited financial statements are sent to the Registrar of Non-Government Schools at the NT Department of Education.”

By implication the suggestion is key decision makers and shareholders knew the true position but didn’t alert the key stakeholders — parents and students.

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THE battleground of the school’s viability was the 200 indigenous boarders who attend Kormilda.

Bethaney Maley, one of the eight-person working group delegated to navigate the school’s future, was clear on the subject.

“The school is financially viable without indigenous boarders,” she said.

“There is a funding shortfall which has been absorbed for too long and we need that addressed.”

Her, and many others including former AFL star Michael Long, who co-chairs the working group, were adamant that the benefits of ensuring the future of these students was alone based on the outcomes they achieved.

This, they said, justified the government’s financial intervention.

School attendance paints a positive picture with the MySchools website showing that 61 per cent of indigenous students (32 per cent of the school’s students are indigenous) at Kormilda attended 90 per cent or more of classes.

This compared to St John’s Catholic College, Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s alma mater, of 13 per cent (42 per cent of their school population — about half of Kormilda’s total — is indigenous).

The website also shows the cost difference in sending a child to Kormilda.

St John’s costs $21,200 per student with the average parental contribution being $4125 while at Kormilda that cost was $24,128.

For those interested, Essington School with a 2 per cent indigenous student base, costs just $18,094 per student with a $7555 parental contribution — slightly more than Darwin High which came in at $17,335 with an average parental contribution of $369.

At no point did anyone suggest scrapping Kormilda’s commitment to its indigenous students, but the debate about their existence beyond 2017 has yet to be addressed.

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Indigenous outcomes were the basis for NT Senator Nigel Scullion, also the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, to ride in and “save the day” this week with the funding commitment.

He dipped into the $4.9 billion Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) to do so.

“Based on what was known of Kormilda College’s financial position, the Government had set aside sufficient funding through the IAS to ensure the college remained open next year,” his statement said.

“Any funding provided through the IAS would be contingent on an independent audit being conducted into Kormilda College’s financial position, as well as the development of a plan to put the college on a sustainable footing into the future.

“For many indigenous students in the NT, Kormilda College provides a passport to a good school education that can open up further education and employment opportunities later in life.

“For this reason, it is absolutely essential the Kormilda College board is able to work through its current difficulties ... I want to work closely with the college’s board and the NT Government to ensure this vital gateway to education and opportunity continues to be provided to Territorian children, particularly indigenous children.”

While the funding has been welcomed across the board, the fact it was drawn from the IAS has already raised eyebrows.

The IAS is already stretched to fund programs including jobs, land and economy, children and schooling, safety and wellbeing, culture and capability and remote Australia strategies.

The use of such a funding pool to bailout Kormilda was questioned by ALP Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.

“Scullion’s support of @NTKormilda welcome for kids, parents, staff. But what impact on already tight #IAS funding?” she Tweeted.

Similar questions were raised after the first round of the new IAS.

The NT News previously reported: “On March 4, Scullion announced 964 organisations would share in $860 million to deliver 1297 projects to 2018 as part of the IAS funding round. The numbers seem large, until it is considered there were actually a total of 2345 organisations who had asked for funding for 4948 projects. Barely a quarter of the projects had been green-lit or continued. The asked-for total topped $14 billion ... meaning it was inevitable providers would be upset.”

Along with the federal funding, NT Education Minister Lawler acted decisively in saving the school.

“Without this injection of $5.1 million from the NT Government the school would have closed this month,” she said.

“The Territory Government has already appointed an independent officer to assess the financial position of the college, and is working with the college to review their operations to ensure sustainability going forward.”

Principal Dr Helen Spiers said the most viable model going forward was a funding arrangement, and that it was too early to say whether the school needed cutbacks in some areas.

Unfortunately for Dr Spiers what the school looks like today may vary dramatically by the end of 2017.

It is an uncomfortable truth associated with saving Kormilda.