SCHOOL FEES 2020 – NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR PAYMENT BY INSTALMENT

The Catholic Education Office and its system of schools are in the process of a business transformation.  Part of this transformation involves a new administration and accounting package being rolled out to schools.  As you would be aware our school has been introducing Compass as our administration system over a period of time.  It is now fully functioning together with a new web based accounting system called Technology One.

This will allow for school fees in 2020 to be invoiced centrally by the Catholic Education Office under advice from schools.  Additionally, families will still be offered the opportunity of paying their school fees by regular payments over the school year as is the existing practice.  However, the new system also allows for instalments to be calculated and advised to families with a Schedule of Payments and the dates that they are due.  This replaces our current process of School Fee Agreements and the necessity for families to calculate their own payments.

Please note, families may elect to pay school fees by instalment under the following terms and conditions:

• The family must complete a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment and present a separate request to each school in which their child/children are enrolled.
• Families may have only one instalment frequency. If the family has multiple accounts due to children at different schools, they may only elect one payment frequency eg fortnightly in both schools. 
• The instalments must pay the school fee account in one school calendar year with an end date of the first week in December.
• On receipt of the Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment, an Instalment Schedule advising dates and amounts, will be generated by our accounting system and forwarded to the family by email so that payments can commence.
• The Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment will continue year to year until a further notice is received from the family.
• If instalments are not paid as agreed and there is serious default, the school may withdraw the offer of payment by instalment at any time and all fees will be due and payable until such time as a further arrangement is agreed upon with the school. Please note, families will be informed of the withdrawal of instalments in writing by email.

FAMILIES WITH EXISTING SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENTS

If you have an existing School Fee Agreement and are meeting your periodical payments as set out in the agreement, you will automatically be allocated to the instalment process in 2020 with your payment frequency.  Therefore, it will not be necessary for you to submit a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment.

FAMILIES WITHOUT AN ACTIVE SCHOOL FEE AGREEMENT

If you do not have an active School Fee Agreement in place and would like to pay by instalments, please obtain a Request to Pay School Fees by Instalment from the school office.  By submitting this request you may elect to pay your school fees next year by weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly instalments.  When fees are invoiced and issued in early 2020, you will be provided with a Schedule of Payments and due dates with your school fee statement to enable you to commence payments.  Please note, if you do not elect to pay by instalments, your school fee account will be payable in full 30 days after annual invoicing.  

FAMILIES WHO MAY BE EXPERIENCING HARDSHIP

For those families who are experiencing financial hardship, please do not hesitate to contact the school office to access an Application for Fee Concession, either when your 2020 school fee statement is received, or in the case of an existing Fee Concession arrangement, on the date of your annual review.

SYSTEM REMINDERS

With the introduction of the new system, we now have the ability to generate system reminders for late payments.  Should you default in your payments, reminders will be issued for each payment missed and they will continue to be issued until your account is brought up to date. 

You will also have the opportunity to contact the school, if necessary in these circumstances, to provide explanation and make a further arrangement for payment.