One of our ovens broke down. Not unsurprising, since like most of our gear I believe it was sent over to the country on Captain Cook's boat. So OK, we put in a request for a replacement.
A replacement oven was a few thousand dollars. Not overly much, and it was approved by our department head, but he had to kick it upstairs for higher approval.
Whoever that higher-up is, he looked at our attendance records, and he had an ...interesting... question to ask. "Why have you had the same students for the past ten years?"
Who, us?Now he wants to close down the course, which sucks, since for me it's a brilliant job. Good pay, great blokes in the surrounding classes, easy work that's fun, etc. Even the students in the class are like family (I didn't get to pick 'em, some of 'em you wish would just piss off and die, but you can't say anything or it'll cause a fucking vendetta. Yeah. Just like a family)
Now, actually the guy's right, the course should be shut down. It's not accomplishing the TAFE purpose, which is to train people for the workforce; it's really a craft club, and TAFE isn't in that business. Some of the students will (have!) argued that they've paid their fees, but I've done the sums and if ALL of them paid their fees (they don't, some have an exemption), the amount they pay wouldn't even cover my wages, let alone the teacher's, and then the materials, mantainence, floorspace that could be used for something else, and so on. So it's the right decision. It's just no good for me, and so I've got to see what I can do to prevent it.
Need some new students. Might stick an ad in the paper.
Of course, a wise man would also plan for the worst to happen. The course, if cancelled, would probably be cancelled at the start of next year. It's unlikely that the course will be cancelled in the second half of this year. Unlikely but possible. A decent-paying job that won't interfere with my carer duties wouldn't be easy to find, but the wife has been considering a part-time job, so I'm considering building a foundry in the backyard and taking a shot at being an artist-in-residence. That'll let me take care of the kids. Perhaps I could offer a class in lost-wax casting. Perhaps I should look around for a part-time job.
So if anyone's in Newcastle, and wants to learn a bit about metal-casting, sign up! But hurry.