To the Board of Directors of Overnewton Anglican Community College

We, the undersigned parents, guardians and members of the Overnewton College community, wish to formally express our strong support for the concerns recently raised with the Board regarding teacher remuneration, College finances, increasing school fees, transparency and executive accountability.

We want to make one thing absolutely clear:

We support our teachers.

We value the incredible teachers who educate, support and care for our children every day. We want Overnewton to retain its experienced and dedicated teachers, and we strongly support them receiving fair and competitive remuneration.

What we do NOT support is families being expected to fund this through yet another increase in school fees.

Overnewton families have experienced repeated fee increases in recent years. Parents have continually been asked to pay more, while we are now facing industrial action involving the very teachers those fees should help support.

The financial concerns raised with the Board therefore require answers.

Parents deserve transparency regarding where the substantial increases in fee revenue over recent years have gone, how much has been directed toward teaching staff, and why further increases to families should be necessary to appropriately compensate and retain our teachers.

The recent correspondence to the Board raised serious concerns regarding the sustainability of continuing fee increases and the increasing financial pressure being placed on Overnewton families.  We strongly share those concerns.

This is not a choice between supporting teachers and protecting families from further fee increases.

The College must be capable of doing both.

We therefore call upon the Board to urgently intervene and reach a fair agreement with our teachers without simply passing the cost of that agreement onto parents through another school fee increase.

We also call for greater financial transparency so families can understand how previous fee increases have been allocated, what proportion of College revenue is being directed to teaching staff, and why the current situation has been allowed to reach the point of industrial action.

OUR POSITION IS CLEAR:

We stand with our teachers.

We want our good teachers to stay at Overnewton.

We support fair and competitive pay for our teachers.

We strongly support the concerns raised by fellow parents regarding the College's financial management, transparency and continuing fee increases.

We do not support another increase in school fees being used to fund the resolution of the current teacher pay dispute.

Families should not simply be asked to pay more without accountability and a clear explanation of how the significant increases already paid by parents have been used.

The original letter sent states that trust, community and transparency have been eroded and calls on the Board to ensure a fair resolution with teaching staff while providing transparency about the allocation of fee revenue.  The parents signing this petition stand strongly behind that call.

Support our teachers.
Retain our teachers.
Pay our teachers fairly.
But do not make Overnewton families pay for it through another fee increase.