Case Study Of Clear Water Bay High School

Clear Water Bay High School
Ms. Kate Huang, Principal of Clear Water Bay High School, had just returned from the boarding meeting of the English Schools Foundation (ESF), where she had agreed to cut her school’s budget by almost 12 percent to $17.6 million. Kate understood that the ESF board had to cut budgets because Hong Kong government would soon stop supporting the ESF with government subvention. Now that she was back to the school,
Kate was taking a hard look at all costs in her budget.
BACKGROUND
Established in 1967 under the ESF Ordinance (Cap. 1117), the ESF at present directly operates nine primary schools, five secondary schools and one special school.
It receives annual recurrent Government subsidies of about $278 million (position
Clear Water Bay High School was one of three ESF high schools in the New
Territories. It was located near the beautiful campus of HKUST, and had an enrollment of approximately 700 students. The school has always maintained a low student-teacher ratio of no more than 15:1. It also had a highly regarded special program to accommodate student with handicapping conditions, such as blindness and deafness. Clear Water Bay was best known, however, for its French Language Program, which used native speakers of French to teach courses that began in the 10th grade and continued through the 12th grade. To correct student’s pronunciation, the school built a language laboratory with equipment for three teacher and 30 students. The teachers can listen to students practicing and intervene whenever necessary. The school also organized a one-week-long field trip to a “sister” high school in
Fontainebleau, France for every student completing the program in the 12th grade.
Since CY Leung became the Chief Executive, the government has been very vocal about removing the subvention to the ESF. With such a dramatic decrease in revenue, the board had become increasingly concerned with budgeting and
Mr. Pitt’s response was not particularly encouraging:
Our teachers are already working very hard! We have to cover lunch and recess periods, and most of us substitute regularly during our break periods for sick
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teachers. We need a minimum of 1 teacher for every 15 students. If we want to reduce the teacher numbers, we have to enroll fewer students.
Next, Kate met with Dr. Matt Damon, a teacher for the Special Education
Program, and Ms. Olivia Wilde, the librarian. Ms. Wilde, the more senior of the two, discussed the use of books and other teaching supplies:
The teaching supplies and books expense does appear to be large, but they are really not excessive. We’re already quite frugal, and we can’t just stop ordering pencils, paper, books, or anything else we need for teaching purposes.
Dr. Damon had an idea for cutting costs. He suggested that the school reduce or eliminate the French Language Program, thereby reducing the budget by more than
$1.5 million. In considering Dr. Damon’s suggestion, Kate called the