PMSA hires $500-an-hour spin doctors Rowlands for damage control

Clayfied College has been rocked by a shock exodus as the elite schools governing body PMSA engages an expensive PR company for damage control.

The highly respected chair and several members of the Clayfield College council have left as the elite school’s governing body, the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association, grapples with a series of scandals and resignations.

The departure of Sandra McCullagh and her fellow council members Sally Kift, Sharon McEvoy and Vicki Waters comes as the PMSA hires expensive spin doctors to manage its crisis communications following explosive revelations in The Courier-Mail.

And it follows last month’s resignation of Clayfield College’s deputy principal.

Clayfield College principal Andrew Cousins announced the exit of the key personnel to the school community via email today.

Ms McCullagh, a board member of QSuper, joined the Clayfield College council in 2017 and is an old girl.

Dr Cousins said the focus of the school council would be “refined into a strategic one” and thanked those members who were “transitioning at this time”.

He said in 2018 the PMSA began a governance reform to “clarify responsibilities and enhance decision-making” and that subcommittees would now be working closely with the PMSA and principals.

Clayfield College is the latest PMSA school to be rocked by resignations.

Clayfield College is one of four prestigious schools run by the PMSA which include Brisbane Boys’ College, Somerville House and Sunshine Coast Grammar School.

Dr Cousins said the change in the school council was designed to “give schools greater autonomy, remove role duplication between the PMSA board and school councils and allow principals and school executives to become more responsible for operational decisions”.

He said the move would “create opportunities for our school community members to take on these important advisory responsibilities” and encouraged anyone in “taking on a voluntary advisory role on the school council … to please reach out”.

It comes as the embattled PMSA hires expensive spin doctors for damage control after a series of bombshell scandals and a mass staff exodus.

PR firm Rowland, which charges up to $500 an hour, today confirmed it had been engaged by the schools body.

The large firm has also worked for the Brisbane Airport Corporation, Griffith University, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, several banks and other major companies.

Rowland’s chairman Geoff Rodgers has experience in schools management as a former deputy chair and director of St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace.

A source said the PMSA had “gone into meltdown” following revelations in The Courier-Mail about moves to “unfairly push” BBC principal Paul Brown, who resigned in February, and the controversial recruitment process that has been labelled “a farce”, with the PMSA and a number of powerful old boys allegedly lobbying for their preferred candidate, an interstate old boy, for months.

Brisbane Boys’ College at Toowong

The PMSA has denied the allegations.

BBC has been plagued by a mass exodus of staff this term, including deputy headmaster Peter Franks, director of community engagement Lea Walker-Franks, director of marketing and communications Kristie Welsh, director of technology services Lee Pickering, facilities manager Simon Cox and IT department employees Daniel Pye and Zachary Menolotto.

In February, BBC council member Michael Goss resigned, and Bridget Cullen quit her positions on both the council and the PMSA after a social media scandal.

BBC council chair Mark Gray quit last August, citing an “unreasonable increase in the school contribution in 2020 to fund the PMSA corporate office”.

Last year, the expulsions of four Year 9 boys were sensationally overturned by the PMSA after parents of the students took the college and principal Paul Brown to court and sued for $750,000 in a negligence claim.

The PMSA then permitted the boys, who were at the centre of an alleged gang bashing of another student (who has since left the college), to be tutored by BBC teachers in office space only a few hundred metres from the Toowong school campus.

Two PMSA staffers, Erin Black and Chanel Cargill, have also recently resigned.