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Should the school have to pay for replacement boiler?
• FOLLOWING your article on William Ellis School (Secret message to school: Beat debt or lose control, March 27), I would like to ask Camden Council how it expects the school to fund a new boiler system from within its operating budget.
It is common knowledge that school budgets are stretched to the full by their educational requirements, with little or no money to put aside for major items of capital expenditure. Surely a major item such as a boiler for a large secondary school should have been funded from the council’s capital works budget.
I feel the school is now bearing the brunt of a decision by the council administration not to fund this item.
Now it seems that the school is expected to fund the boiler system from within its own operating budget over an unrealistic time scale of just 21 months, putting great stress on staff and pupils and potentially jeopardising the long-term success of the school.
The implication throughout has been that the school is responsible for this deficit “caused by… a new boiler system” and yet the council acknowledges the amount is “significant compared to the school’s budget”. It is not as if the school bought a new boiler for no reason – as parents we all know how disruptive it is for schools to be persistently closing when there are boiler breakdowns during the winter.
I imagine that William Ellis ordered the new boiler system on the understanding that this kind of major item would fall under the responsibility of the council.
My son is a pupil at the school and has been very happy there for several years. It is a fantastic school and does great work with the boys – something to be proud of in these times. The council should be supporting the school in this crisis rather than attempting to blame the school for its own inability to fund major capital works when they fall necessary.
This is obviously a one-off situation.
The school has a good management team and should be better supported in continuing to manage itself.
NAME AND ADDRESS
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