EDUCATION chiefs in York are considering moves to claw back £1.783 million from schools which have salted away cash reserves.

Under Whitehall rules, City of York Council now has the power to retrieve "excessive" surplus balances, and put them back in to the pot to be redistributed among all schools.

The regulations allow the council to take revenue reserves in excess of five per cent of the current year's budget allocation for secondary schools, and in excess of eight per cent for primary schools.

At the end of March this year, three out of the city's 11 secondary schools and 42 out of 52 primaries held revenue reserves in excess of these levels - a total of £1.783 million.

For the financial year 2004-5 Bishopthorpe Infant School had £138,000, or 40 per cent above the permitted level; Derwent Junior had £105,000, or 36 per cent above the level; and Yearsley Grove Primary had £300,000, or 34 per cent above the level.

At the other end of the spectrum there were deficits of £120,000 at Hob Moor Primary, £20,000 at Rawcliffe Infants, and £40,000 at Westfield Primary.

Of the city's secondary schools Fulford had £300,000 or 11 per cent above the proposed level, with Huntington at £220,000 (seven per cent) and Joseph Rowntree had £210,000 (six per cent).

Head teachers have been consulted over the proposals, which are aimed stopping schools needlessly amassing funds.

Mark Barnett, head at Westfield Primary School in Acomb, said: "I do think it's wrong that some schools can have hundreds of thousands of pounds in an account that's gaining interest when other schools are needing new buildings, and the council is speaking sense on this one."

Kevin Hall, the council's assistant director of education, said: "We are proposing clawing back the money and recycling it through the schools that don't have sufficient balances.

"Schools will be able to hold over the five or eight per cent marker in reserve for specific building projects, or other commitments, but otherwise they will have to stick to it."

John Thompson, head teacher at Lowfield School, is chairman of the schools forum, which looks at school financial issues.

He said: "This is a sensible solution to make sure everybody is making the best use of the money, and where there are legitimate plans for it to be spent on school improvement issues that's fine. But schools should work to improve their financial management so that this money is not sloshing around in their reserves and is being used as quickly as possible."

He said the preliminary figures for 2005/6 show there should be no secondary schools with reserves and only 12 primaries.

The proposals will go before a meeting of the council's resources scrutiny board at 5pm on October 17, after which governing bodies will be consulted.

The Evening Press asked head teachers in York how they spend their funds and what they think of the claw-back proposal

Becky White, head teacher at Bishopthorpe Infants, which has 144 pupils, said: "The money we had left over has been spent building an ICT suite and library, which cost £180,000 so we will be in the red next time around. I can quite see that from the point of view of schools that don't have a lot in reserve we must look like a 'fat cat', but we are not."

Hugh Porter, head teacher at Joseph Rowntree School, which has 1,349 pupils, said: "It's only prudent that schools should have a reasonable level of funds in reserve for any unforeseen costs that may arise as part of a contingency fund. I would support 'claw back' in principal so that where reserves are excessive the money can be redirected."

Ann Burn, head teacher at Yearsley Grove, which has 393 pupils, said: "The reason we had reserves was to build an ICT suite and library, and it's not as if it's like the money's in a savings account, it's there for a specific purpose.

"It hasn't all been spent on that, we are looking to buy 30 laptops as well.

"York is very poorly funded by central Government."

Updated: 09:38 Tuesday, October 04, 2005