PMSA chair Morgan Parker quits 13 months after taking on the role

The outgoing chair of the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools’ Association is leaving the job after one year, saying the scandal-plagued organisation needs to be ‘taken apart and rebuilt’.

The outgoing chair of the scandal-plagued Presbyterian and Methodist Schools’ Association, which runs four of Queensland’s elite schools, has described the overhaul of the church body as a “Herculean task”.

Real estate tycoon Morgan Parker, who quit after only a year in the top job, said he had “no doubt made progress but the job is far from done”.

Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail, Mr Parker said the PMSA – which governs Brisbane Boys’ College, Somerville House, Clayfield College and Sunshine Coast Grammar School – was “far more complex” than a regular corporation.

Real estate tycoon Morgan Parker is expected to officially leave his post at the upcoming AGM. Pic Mark Cranitch.

He likened it to “a vintage car that needs to be taken apart and rebuilt; it’s a Herculean task.”

Mr Parker, who joined the PMSA as a board member in 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”.

He said it was important for the PMSA to “get out of the schools and allow them to flourish in their own identity”.

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

Board member Bridget Cullen resigned after The Courier-Mail exposed a facebook page she had set up, following the theft of her black BMW, in which she was accused of stereotyping poor people.

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.

Somerville House has been without a functioning P&F association since November last year, amid allegations of a million-dollar cash freeze of its funds by principal Kim Kiepe.

When Mr Parker joined the PMSA, it was reeling from an explosive integrity crisis involving an alleged data breach and texts between the then PMSA chair, Robert McCall, and then executive manager, Rick Hiley, in which they arranged a meeting in a nude Korean-style bathhouse.

Neither Mr Hiley nor Mr McCall have spoken publicly, but the PMSA investigated and cleared them of wrongdoing.

The Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association encompasses Brisbane Boys College, Somerville House, Sunshine Coast Grammar and Clayfield College.

That same year popular Somerville House principal Flo Kearney and several staff exited the school, and the once-vocal BeyondPMSA breakaway group called for a shakeup in the governance structure at the four schools.

Mr Parker said it was clear the PMSA had to “stop interfering” in the schools and “create professional autonomy but at the same time leverage economies of scale”.

“I have given a lot of time to that organisation, trying to pick it up from where it was and ultimately I had to balance this volunteerism with the five (other) boards that pay me,” he said.

When asked about additional appointments to the PMSA, Mr Parker said the costs “were in line with that of any head office”.

He said he had achieved greater gender equality and brought in experienced CFOs from across Australia to drive the association forward.

“When I arrived, some people on the board had been there for more than 20 years so there has been a lot of renewal, which is vital in maintaining momentum and retaining vibrancy, and now there is a strategy for the future.

“The PMSA has strived to support school principals, but also schools have their own ecosystem and moving parts that we’re not part of – we’ve been quite vigilant in our efforts the last few years to stay out of schools.”