‘Come on, there are some chairs over there.’ Annie tugged on Gemma’s jumper and led the way towards the further edge of the circle.
Slipping between the chairs, Gemma sat down and then realized she was positioned directly opposite Jonathan, of all people. Meeting his eye, she gave him a quick, encouraging smile. This was the right thing to do. She was sure of it. Even more so now that she was here in the hall with all her colleagues. Each and every one of them deserved to know the truth, they deserved to know what was happening and how rocky the future here at Woodland Primary may be for them.
Jonathan flicked through a folder on his lap as he waited for the last of the seats to be filled. Gemma could see the nervous tic in his jaw, and it was taking all her restraint not to rush over there and stand by his side.
Finally, Adam, the last of all to arrive, slipped quietly into the last vacant chair, and Jonathan stood up, carefully placing his folder on the chair behind him.
Tugging at his tie, he forced a smile. ‘Thank you, everyone, for coming. I appreciate that this meeting is in addition to your required hours and that you are all here in your own time. I shall do my best to repay the favour.’
‘We’re just excited to know what the news is.’ Adam was the first to speak up.
‘Ha, he reckons you’ve had news we’re having a royal visit.’ Lydia crossed her arms. ‘I told him it’s more likely to be an Ofsted visit.’
An audible groan erupted from those seated, and Gemma caught Jonathan’s eye again, this time giving him a small nod as though to say, go on, tell them.
‘Er, no, we’re not due Ofsted for a while yet. Hopefully.’ Jonathan held his palm up to silence the sighs of relief. ‘But the news I have may be worse than that.’
‘Really? What can be worse than having to endure the stress of Ofsted?’ Tania shook her head.
Jonathan tugged on his tie again. ‘Ever since arriving here, I’ve been debating whether to share this information with you at all. But after discussions with someone whose opinion I trust, I have decided you all have the right to know and that perhaps we might just be able to work together for the good of the school.’
He trusted her opinion? She tried to catch his eye again, but he was looking around the room, as though to weigh up what the reaction might be.
‘There is no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come straight out and tell you. The school is in financial trouble. We are two hundred thousand pounds in deficit to be exact, and I have been asked to make up the shortfall.’ He paused, waiting for the shocked chatter amongst the staff members to subside before he continued. ‘The easiest route, and what the academy trust is expecting, is for there to be redundancies.’
‘Redundancies? Who?’
‘We’re going to lose our jobs?’
‘How many of us are going to be made redundant?’
Jonathan stood stock-still as people flung questions in his direction, and Gemma could almost see each one cause as much damage as a true punch would. After a few minutes, when the hall had lapsed into an uneasy silence once more, Jonathan reached down and picked up his folder. Tapping it with one hand, he looked around the room, his eyes meeting every single person’s gaze except for Gemma’s. ‘In this folder there are budget sheets, cost analysis and all sorts of other spreadsheets I have changed and tweaked in an attempt to locate the money but the truth is, even if I was to tell you there would be no ordering of resources, no paid visits in or out of the school and the roof would remain in its current state for another year, there just aren’t enough savings.’
Again, the room erupted into nervous chatter, and Gemma watched as Jonathan sank into his chair. She couldn’t just sit here and watch; she had to do something, say something in support of him. Just as she was about to stand up, he untied his tie and tore it from his collar before standing up again.
Taking a deep breath, Jonathan held a hand up to silence the room and spoke again. This time his voice was firm, authoritative, hopeful even. ‘I’m not telling you all so you go away and worry about what might or might not happen, I’m being open about this as a problem because someone advised me that this school is strong, that you’re all here because you believe in the good work you do, because you care for the children who attend and the families and the local community. I’m telling you because I’ll be damned if I’m walking into this school and making redundancies in my first term here. I’m telling because I’m asking for your help. I believe we have hope, and between us we might just be able to work together and fix this.’
Gemma looked around the room. Everyone was silent, an almost tangible air of hope hanging between them all. She grinned. She’d known he’d be able to do this. She’d known he’d be able to encourage the support he needed, the support they all needed.
‘With some help, I’ve found places where we can save money and also ways to build our income as a school, such as hiring out the hall to more clubs. And I’ll want you the next few years won’t be pretty, we’ll have to make cutbacks, and there’ll be no new laptops, no fancy theatre company visits, heck, no unlimited supply of poster paints, but I do believe if we can all pool our ideas and work together, then we stand a chance.’
Lydia raised her hand, waiting for him to nod at her before she spoke. ‘So, no one will lose their jobs?’
Jonathan rubbed his palm across the stubble on his chin, another sign of the stress he’d been under recently. ‘Not if I can help it. I can’t and won’t make any promises, but I will reassure you all that redundancies will be the last resort.’
‘Right, well, what can we do to help then?’ Adam spoke.
With his shoulders visibly relaxing, Jonathan turned and nodded towards Joanne who had been waiting patiently at the back of the hall, holding a box of paperwork. ‘Joanne will pass around copies of the basic budget and the current list of ideas to save and raise money. All I ask is that you each take a look and if you see anything where money could be saved or ways in which we can increase our income, then add it to the list.’
‘Will we be able to discuss our ideas? All together?’ Bertie asked.
‘The last thing I want to do is ask you to give up any more of your time.’ Jonathan frowned.
‘I’m happy to come in at the weekend and talk our ideas through. Perhaps we could have a quick audit to see what resources we already have?’ Lydia glanced around the room,waiting for people to nod in agreement before she carried on. ‘I know there are resource cupboards in every year group. And we all probably know of stock we won’t be using in our classes. We could check to see what we have and if other classes can use them instead of ordering new stuff?’
‘That’s a good idea. We’ve got loads of clay in our ear group, and we don’t even use it.’ Adam shrugged.
‘It won’t raise much, but every little will help, won’t it?’ Lydia asked.
