CEO quits: Another high-profile loss for elite school body

Just a month after its chairman quit, the embattled Presbyterian and Methodist Schools’ Association is now losing its CEO.

The chief executive officer of the embattled Presbyterian and Methodist Schools’ Association has quit, within weeks of the church body’s chair also resigning.

Sharon Callister, appointed inaugural CEO in July 2018, announced her departure on Friday.

The PMSA runs elite Queensland schools Brisbane Boys’ College, Somerville House, Clayfield College and Sunshine Coast Grammar School but has been plagued by scandals in recent years.

In a statement, outgoing chair Morgan Parker said Mrs Callister had “led the organisation through a period of unprecedented change and transformation”.

PMSA CEO Sharon Callister has announced her resignation.

Mrs Callister, previously CEO of Salvation Army Aged Care Plus for 10 years, said she would be returning to Sydney and “family responsibilities”.

“I am confident I am leaving the PMSA in a strong position, with the governance reform program we embarked on three years ago in place and now being fully implemented,” she said.

“These reforms are all about giving the school principals more autonomy and more effectively utilising valued PMSA volunteers to provide strategic advice and support across all areas of PMSA,” Mrs Callister said.

Mr Parker said the board was “undertaking an extensive executive recruitment process for a new group CEO to guide the organisation through its next exciting chapter”.

Outgoing PMSA chairman Morgan Parker at BBC. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

In late April, Mr Parker announced his own decision to quit, describing the overhaul of the PMSA as a “Herculean task”.

Mr Parker, who pulled the pin after only 13 months as chair and had been a board member since 2018, said he’d learned “you can really work to fix parts of an organisation, but until all parts understand each other and are functioning at best practice, you’re always going to have crises before you”.

Brisbane Boys College at Toowong Headmaster Paul Brown has also resigned this year.

This year the PMSA has been accused of “unfairly pushing” BBC principal Paul Brown to resign, conducting a farcical recruitment process for his replacement, and treating school staff in a “reprehensible” way, resulting in a mass staff exodus.

In March, the Somerville House parents’ and friends’ association engaged lawyers after “a fundamental breakdown in the relationship” with principal Kim Kiepe and the PMSA over an alleged $1 million cash freeze.

In February, PMSA board member and acting BBC school council chair Bridget Cullen resigned after being accused of stereotyping poor people in a Facebook page she set up following the theft of her black BMW.

Last year the expulsions of four Year 9 BBC boys embroiled in an alleged gang bashing incident were overturned after their parents took Mr Brown and the school to court in a $750,000 negligence claim. The PMSA investigated, and the case has since settled.

Mark Gray quit as BBC school council chair in August, stating he was “concerned about the strategic direction the PMSA is pursuing, which I believe is not in the best interests of the college”.