Mount Gambier High School fails to hire a new principal despite Education Department offering extra incentives

A six-figure salary and extra incentives aren’t enough to secure the right leader for a regional high school – with its interim principal heading for the door.

A regional South Australian high school has been left without a principal after it failed to fill the position despite repeating the recruitment process.

The second attempt to hire a Mount Gambier High School principal has come up short with a successful applicant rejecting the role as the interim replacement steps away from the top job.

It comes after an initial six-month search found “no successful applicant” leading the Education Department to offer extra incentives on top of a $168,935 base salary to attract candidates who might not normally consider relocating to Mount Gambier.

The position was left vacant when former principal Chris Edmonds left at the end of last year to move to Adelaide and lead Walkerville Primary.

Interim principal Peter McLaren was set to fill the role for first semester but announced he would stay on for Term 3 while the recruitment process was repeated.

Interim Mount Gambier High School principal Peter McLaren. Picture: Mount Gambier High School

In a letter to parents this week, Mr McLaren said a replacement who “met all the criteria to a high standard” had be found but would not take on the job.

“Unfortunately during the offer process the nominated applicant was successful in winning another role and subsequently decided to decline the Mount Gambier High School principal position,” he said.

“Whilst the school community is disappointed with this recent news we have been assured by education director Adam Box that process will continue to pursue the right person, with long term tenure that will be able to lead our school into the future.”

With Mr McLaren unable to continue into Term 4, deputy principal Suze Ricketts will fill in.

“I have every confidence that Suze will continue to drive the successful development at our school and look forward to an announcement of a new principal at Mount Gambier High School in the near future,” he said.

While Mr McLaren said reclassifying the position and added incentives had attracted a “higher number of applications” the department could not reveal the number of applicants to “protect candidates’ privacy”.

In a statement said it said the deputy principal was well placed to step into the principal role next term as it continued the recruitment process.

“We have a huge amount of confidence in our current leaders, and we are building the capabilities of our current and future leaders across the system,” the statement said.

Mount Gambier High School.

“It’s important we attract and attain high-quality leaders in regions and there are some cases where a position is readvertised because the selection panel does not make a recommendation.

“When that happens we keep the tenured position open until we can attract someone with the right skills and abilities to match the specific needs of the school.”

The department did not answer questions about whether there were broader problems with securing principals across the state.

In 2019 The Advertiser revealed that more than 20 public schools started that year without a permanent principal, in some cases because of a lack of suitable candidates.

At the time, principals called for greater administrative support and for the growing burdens placed on school leaders to be reduced to make the job more attractive.

They said some assistant and deputy principals were reluctant to go for the top jobs, with increasingly aggressive parents and growing expectations that public schools deliver everything from sports teams to cyber safety among the reasons.