Leaving collection for Head

[Tiredeyesalways]

This is very outing so I've namechanged.

Head is going to another (better) school within our academy group. I expect over the next couple of years our best teachers will follow. The recruitment process for a new head was a cock-up and now the deputy is taking over, leaving the school with no teacher for her class as they left it too late to recruit a new teacher too. Parents who were aware of how badly the governors dealt with it all are angry, but apparently are 'outliers' (aka troublemakers) because no one else has a problem with it (few parents knew though). Anyway, that's the background.
A parent has organised a collection for the Head on PayPal - it's currently over £1k. Is this a thing now? WTAF?
It sticks in my throat. The school is making cutbacks left right and centre, but the Head gets waved off with a golden handshake. Why? I'm genuinely baffled.
My children will write a card and that is it. The world has gone mad. Or AIBU?

It is very hard to recruit Heads at the moment- so possibly that was the reason. It happens. Resignation date for Heads (mostly some academies differ) is 30th April which with Easter etc is too late to recruit for September.

Yes exactly. It didn't help that they only advertised internally within the MAT.

What? £1k for the head? Is it a really big school?

Are there not rules against presents of that size? I would suggest using it to buy equipment for the school in the head’s name would be a better idea.

Just over 300 pupils, so not that big. Around 80 families contributed so far.

But surely this is nothing to do with the situation, it's simply people wanting to show their appreciation by donating.

And you chose not to. And that's fine too.

No that's just background and explains why I'm bitter cross. He wasn't involved in the recruitment debacle but was critical of those parents that had concerns.

But is a collection of this size the done thing now??

If there’s a collection then people can donate.

The collection isn't that much per head though is it.

When our head left I put £10 in the collection as I have two kids and I found he was very helpful. There’s about 200 kids in his part if the school, and some of the parents in senior school would have contributed too - so potentially 400 kids’ parents. That could very quickly add up to well over £1000.

A 'gift' that size may cause an issue with internal financial procedures. He may end up paying tax on it if the academy has a secure finance policy.