Grammar gives seven workers redundancies
IPSWICH Grammar School has made seven non-teaching staff redundant following a comprehensive review of its financial situation.
Annual reports tabled in State Parliament earlier this year showed both IGS and Ipswich Girls' Grammar had operating losses last year running into the millions.
IGS recorded an operating loss of $2.17 million.
School headmaster Robert Henderson confirmed that five office staff and two grounds and maintenance staff had been offered redundancies and finished at the school last week.
He said the decision to shed the workers only came after the school had undergone a "thorough analysis" in which it was found that certain areas were overstaffed, especially when compared to other private schools.
"We are trying to reduce costs and operate more efficiently - like a lot of businesses across Ipswich and Queensland in general," Mr Henderson said.
"These staff were offered redundancies because we believe we can cope without them."
Mr Henderson denied the school was in financial trouble, instead insisting that the motive behind the staff cuts was to reduce costs and in turn reduce student fee increases.
There are currently 1380 students at IGS, ranging from Prep to Year 12.
Fees range from about $7000 a year for primary students, up to $13,000 a year for secondary students.
Those fees have risen 5% and 6% respectively over the last two years.
Mr Henderson said there were no plans to reduce the number of teachers at the school, which stands at 80.
"In the Ipswich region our fees are at the top end, but for comparable schools in Brisbane we are lower than the GPS schools," Mr Henderson said.
"At the same time, we are aware that our fees are high relative to the area in which we are situated.
"Over a period of time we would like to be able to reduce (our fees).
"We are coming up to our 150th year, we have a long history in Ipswich and part of our role is to make education affordable to people in our region."
