‘Just that, the school is haemorrhaging money. I’ve been brought in to make cuts.’ He spread his arms out in front of him, encompassing the paperwork littered across the floor.
Sinking to the floor, Gemma curled her legs beneath her and lowered her file to the carpet before picking up a stack of papers and blindly looking at them. ‘The school is in financial trouble? How? Everyone knows the PTA has loads in the bank.’ She shook her head. That wasn’t true if what Annie had said was correct. ‘Hadmoney in the bank before Diane...’
Catching her eye, he shook his head. ‘Diane Norton did nothing wrong. She got signed off with work-related stress because she couldn’t face dismissing anyone.’
‘You’re sacking someone?’ She asked, the words almost catching at the back of her throat. She couldn’t imagine the school being torn apart. Everyone worked so well together. They needed everyone for the smooth running of the school.
‘People. I need to make a teacher and a teaching assistant redundant to make up the funds. As well as making other cuts.’
‘But... but what’s wrong with the school? Why isn’t there any money left? How?’ She wiped the palm of her hand absentmindedly down the leg of her jeans, an oily flapjack mark appearing on the fabric.
‘Drop in pupil numbers leading to less funding, poor financial management. I could go on...’ He shook his head.
‘But where has the money gone? Heck, you’ve seen the state of the hall roof and the equipment on the playground is all broken, the...’ She let her voice trail off. He knew all this. He may have only been here for a week, but a week was plenty long enough to cast an eye around the building. He knew.
Placing his hands on the armrests of his chair, he stood up. ‘I’m still figuring that out, but likely from an accumulation of financial deficits over the years. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t share any of this with the other staff. Or parents. Anyone.’
Standing up, she nodded. ‘I won’t. You have my word.’
‘Much appreciated.’ Placing his hands in his pockets, he gave her a curt nod.
She walked across towards the door before turning around. ‘The money from the fete, will that go towards the debt or for things the school needs, like replacing the equipment or new books for the library? Half the laptops don’t work and haven’t for months...’
Rubbing his palm across his stubble, Jonathan shrugged. ‘The money raised from the PTA events is a separate legal entity to the school balance, but...’
‘But Diane encouraged them to hand it over to cover the day-to-day running of the school?’ That’s where the money had gone then. Gina had likely passed it over to Diane on the understanding it would be spent of certain things, and all it had done was to plug a hole in an ever decreasing bank account.
Picking his way through the paperwork, he reached the door and held it open for her.
‘Right, yes. I should go and get back to the stall.’ Nodding, Gemma made her way back out into the corridor. In the doorway, she turned and faced him again suddenly aware that, however hard this was for her to hear, however hard it would be for the rest of the school community to hear when the time came, the decisions, the worry was all resting on Jonathan’s shoulders. ‘Are you okay?’
Frowning slightly, he looked down at his shoes before looking her in the eye. ‘I will be. Thank you for asking.’
That meant a no then. No wonder he’d been acting so grouchy. Slowly, she turned back and made her way down the corridor again. As she walked, she looked at the walls, taking in the display boards, the happy, bright backing paper peeking between children’s work, line drawings, paintings, and writing. Everybody who worked here had invested so much of their lives in this school, to the children, to the job role, to the future of the village and yet soon, according to Jonathan, at least two people would have the rug pulled out from under their feet, would find themselves unemployed and being forced to walk away from a vocation they’d spent so long working for.
At the end of the corridor, she walked through the Year Four classroom, weaving her way through the desks towards the door leading outside.
‘Gemma!’
Jumping in surprise, Gemma turned to face Lydia, who was sitting behind her desk in the corner of the classroom. ‘Geez, Lydia, you scared me half to death!’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.’ Standing up, Lydia laughed.
‘No, I was just in a world of my own.’ Forcing a smile, Gemma pointed towards the door. ‘I was heading back outside.’
‘I’ll come with you.’ Lydia held up her mobile. ‘My eldest is on her way back from uni for the weekend. It’s my dad’s birthday party tomorrow, so she’ll be at home for that.’
‘Oh, that’s lovely.’ Gemma continued towards the door, not really sure whether Lydia’s presence was a relief to tear her from her thoughts or whether she’d been hoping to be able to hide out for a little while and let Jonathan’s disclosure sink in.
‘Yes, we’ve not seen her since we dropped her off in September, so we’re all so excited to see her again.’ Lydia beamed as she slipped her mobile into her back pocket. ‘That was my hubby, Darren, he’s just picked her from the train station.’
‘Aw, that’s lovely. She’ll be ready and waiting for you when you get back from here.’ Pulling the door open, she held it for Lydia before following her outside.
‘Yes. As much as I love these events, I can’t wait for this one to be over so I can get home to see her.’ Lydia shrugged. ‘Although, being as how popular the bottle raffle stall always is, we might just be sold out, so to speak, soon enough, and I’ll be able to head off.’
‘That’s true.’ Gemma nodded.
‘Anyway, talking of which, I should get back and help Adam, so I’ll catch you later.’
